House will not negotiate on “bathroom bill” amendment

Well, this is it.

Refusing to go any further to regulate bathroom use for transgender Texans, House Speaker Joe Straus said on Friday that the House will not appoint members to negotiate with the Senate on its proposed compromise on a “bathroom bill.”

“For many of us — and especially for me — this was a compromise,” Straus said. “As far as I’m concerned, it was enough. We will go no further. This is the right thing to do in order to protect our economy from billions of dollars in losses and more importantly to protect the safety of some very vulnerable young Texans.”

[…]

“If the Senate wants to pass a ‘bathroom bill,’ it can concur with the bill we passed earlier week,” Straus told reporters during a Friday news conference. “The House has compromised enough on this issue.”

Calling it “absurd” that “‘bathroom bills’ have taken on greater urgency than fixing our school finance system,” Straus said the House is “availing itself” of the same actions the Senate took on school finance legislation by refusing to appoint members to conference committee on legislation originally intended to inject $1.5 billion into the state’s funding for the majority of public schools and to simplify some of the state’s complex, outdated school funding formulas.

See here for the background. Dan Patrick is of course screaming for a special session to force the issue, and he may get it. Or he may not. It’s up to Greg Abbott. Abbott’s a weak leader who could use a little guidance, so call his office at 512-463-2000 and tell the nice person who answers that you want no special session for a bathroom bill. Be polite, but do call. The DMN and the Observer have more.

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