‘Ding dong the bill is dead.’ Red meat legislation dies in Texas House after midnight deadline

AUSTIN — Several divisive red meat bills, including one targeting transgender student athletes, died in the House on Tuesday night after failing to pass before the chamber’s last major deadline.

Opponents of the legislation erupted into applause at midnight when the cutoff for approving Senate bills passed. Any legislation that didn’t advance by that time is effectively dead. One member of the public stood up in the gallery, cheering and waving a large transgender flag.

While Democrats had a number of Republican bills in their sights this week, they were especially focused on killing the sports legislation, which would have required transgender student athletes to compete on teams matching the sex on their birth certificates instead of those corresponding to their gender identity.

“We woke up this morning determined to kill that bill,” Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Carrollton, told  just before midnight. “I’m really really pleased and so grateful that we were able to deliver this win for the children of Texas and their rights to live full and happy lives, free from discrimination.”

Over the objections of LGBTQ advocates and families of trans kids, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick elevated Senate Bill 29 this session as one of his top priorities. But the GOP-led House postponed debate on the bill late Tuesday, effectively killing it by running out the clock, over fears that Democrats would drag out the discussion and doom dozens of other bills set for debate after it.

“We’ve got a lot to do in a short period of time,” Rep. Tom Oliverson, vice chairman of the Texas House Republican Caucus, told The News just before the deadline. “We can’t make time.”

Rep. Erin Zwiener, a Driftwood Democrat and, like Johnson, a member of the House LGBTQ+ Caucus put it more simply on Twitter after midnight: “Ding dong the bill is dead.”

Two other Patrick priorities also died Tuesday after their Republican sponsors repeatedly pushed back discussion.

Senate Bill 10 aimed to block local governments from spending taxpayer funds to hire lobbyists; Senate Bill 12 would have set new state-specific regulations on social media sites, a response to GOP complaints that platforms like Facebook are infringing on conservative speech.

Tensions high

Tensions are running high with only a few days left in the 2021 legislative session, which ends Monday.

The House did not meet Friday and Saturday in retaliation for the Senate refusing to to take up bipartisan priority health care and criminal justice bills backed by Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont. And the Senate, which must pass House bills by Wednesday, began slowing its own work Tuesday afternoon over frustrations with the other chamber.

“On this side, we’re actually still obviously passing some very good House bills,” Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, said during floor debate over a bill that would limit the source of animals sold at pet stores. “It’d be nice if we could get some good Senate bills passed as well.”

“Because we don’t want it to be a dog-eat-dog world, right?” Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, responded.

By Tuesday night, however, the chamber had passed several high-profile bills.

One would curb the governor’s power during a pandemic by allowing only the Legislature to restrict business operations, among other things. Another would expand the state’s medicinal cannabis program — among the most limited in the nation — to include more qualifying patient conditions and raise allowable THC to 1%. A third would set new requirements for no-knock search warrants, when police can enter a home without first announcing their presence.

The bills passed with little debate and now go back to the House, where members can agree to the Senate changes or request a conference committee to hash out the differences.

Democrats in both chambers have had a tough year in the Legislature. Fresh off their wins in the 2020 elections, the GOP-led Legislature successfully advanced a slew of conservative bills this session dealing with guns, abortion and voting rights that haven’t gained momentum in past years.

Johnson said killing the transgender sports bill was one of the few shining moments: “The LGBTQ community came out of this session without a single bill targeting us.”

Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, told The News that deadline day is always filled with anxiety and tension but ensuring the transgender bill didn’t advance was a victory.

“That was incredibly important. That was a dangerous bill,” Moody, who serves as Speaker Pro Tem, said.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick priorities

While the House killed several of Patrick’s priorities on Tuesday, it whipped through a number of his most contentious bills on Monday, debating legislation to require pro teams that get public funding to play the national anthem, target counties that cut police funding and bar hotels from banning guns in guests’ rooms.

All of them passed, mostly along party lines.

Late Tuesday night, the House approved one of Patrick’s other priority bills to block municipalities from adopting local ordinances that go beyond or conflict with state or federal employment laws — after a lengthy discussion.

The measure was filed in response to local governments requiring businesses to offer specific benefits to their workers, like mandatory minimum wage or paid sick leave. But Democrats introduced several amendments to soften the legislation, including a chance to ensure workers get proper water breaks.

Rep. Phil King, the sponsor in the House, also assured Democrats the bill would not negate local nondiscrimination ordinances protecting the LGBTQ community. Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal law bans workplace discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, King said the bill would not bar cites from adopting these protections.

“Does Senate Bill 14 have any language that would modify, amend, repeal or alter any current nondiscrimination here in Texas?” Johnson asked King.

“Ordinances that prohibit LGBTQ employment discrimination do not exceed federal law,” King, R-Weatherford, said. “This bill does not prohibit that.”

Unifying legislation

While there were plenty of contentious debates, House members also came together to pass some unifying legislation as well. Just before 10 p.m., the House approved legislation to require lobbyists to undertake ethics and sexual harassment training.

And earlier in the evening, they passed a bipartisan bill that would ban the police use of chokeholds unless the restraint was used to protect the safety or life of the officer or another person. While Democrats said the bill didn’t go as far as they would have liked — to ban neck restraints, full stop, or ax laws that allow officers to avoid civil litigation — they said it was a step in the right direction.

“Today is the one-year anniversary of the brutal death of George Perry Floyd,” said Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City. One of several lawmakers who donned pins featuring Floyd’s photo, Reynolds added: “And if this bill is enacted into law, it would have possibly prevented his death.”