Governor revives 'bathroom bill' for special session | State

Read article : Governor revives 'bathroom bill' for special session | State

AUSTIN — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott revived a failed "bathroom bill" targeting transgender people Tuesday while also resurrecting anti-abortion proposals, anti-union efforts and more as an encore to a rancorous legislative session that ended with Republicans feuding and one GOP lawmaker threatening to pull a gun on a Democratic colleague.

A lengthy special session agenda set by Abbott — nearly 20 issues in all — now threatens to rekindle those hostilities at the Texas Capitol through summer and was announced just a week after lawmakers had returned home and began cooling off.

Legislators won't return to work until July 18, but already Democrats and some outside groups are fuming, particularly over a North Carolina-style "bathroom bill" that big business opponents including Amazon, IBM and the NFL called discriminatory and hoped had been extinguished for good. Before lawmakers adjourned last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg signed a letter reiterating their opposition and called the proposal bad for business.

"At a minimum, we need a law that protects the privacy of our children in our public schools," Abbott said.

The first try collapsed when social conservatives who set Texas' political agenda and Republican moderates deadlocked over how far the bill should go. No state has followed in the footsteps of North Carolina following the economic and political upheaval wrought by a 2016 law that required transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds with the sex on their birth certificate.

The fallout prompted North Carolina to partially repeal the law in March, but Abbott has committed to pursuing a similar measure even as other GOP governors across the U.S. have backed away. One version he again endorsed Tuesday stops short of requiring people to use the bathroom listed on their birth certificate but would rollback transgender protections in major Texas cities.

The decision was a significant political test for Abbott, who faces re-election in 2018 and didn't begin publicly supporting a "bathroom bill" until weeks after the full legislative session began in January. It ended Memorial Day with Republican leaders feuding over the failure of the original proposal and — in another sign of raw tensions — a skirmish between lawmakers over a "sanctuary cities" crackdown.

Tensions had flared when Republican Matt Rinaldi announced he had called federal immigration authorities on protesters in gallery of the Texas House of Representatives who Rinaldi said held signs saying they were in the country illegally. He was then confronted and pushed by Democratic lawmakers and told one that he would shoot him "in self-defense" if needed.

Abbott said he expected lawmakers to return "with a calm demeanor."

Democrats, who are vastly outnumbered in the Texas Legislature and are powerless to stop most bills, balked at the agenda. The special session lasts 30 days and lawmakers are not required to pass every bill that Abbott has demanded.

"Governor Abbott needs to be reminded that he was not elected president of a local Tea Party chapter; he holds the office of governor in the greatest state in the county," Democratic House Caucus chairman Chris Turner said.

Abbott also ordered the Legislature to work on increasing teacher pay and a limited form of school vouchers, which gives public money to private schools. Another is an anti-abortion effort that would prohibit taxpayer dollars from being used to fund abortions and bar some insurance plans from covering the procedure. He also wants to strengthen regulations mandating that clinics and other health facilities report all complications arising after abortions are performed, even though such complications are rare.

He is also reviving an effort stalled during the regular session, but has passed in other Republican-controlled states, that would end voluntary payroll deductions of union dues from state and public employee paychecks.

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Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pauljweber

Abbott suggests 'bathroom bill' likely dead for now

Read article : Abbott suggests 'bathroom bill' likely dead for now

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday he revived a "bathroom bill" targeting transgender people even though he was told it would never get a vote in the GOP-controlled state House, while signaling that the twice-failed effort is dead for the foreseeable future.

A proposal requiring transgender Texans to use public restrooms according to the gender on their birth certificates fizzled Tuesday night, when lawmakers abruptly ended a month-long special legislative session Abbott convened. It was the second time the bill has sank in Texas since May, leaving North Carolina as the only state to approve one.

McManus: Bathroom bill 'does nothing to make us safer'

Abbott blamed moderate Republican House Speaker Joe Straus, who has for months sided with powerful businesses interests in saying the bill could harm the state's economy. But the governor also admitted that Straus told him even before the special session that he would not bring the bill to the floor.

"The speaker made very clear that he opposed this bill and he would never allow a vote to be taken on it," Abbott said in an interview with Houston radio station KTRH. "He told me during the regular session that if this came up during the special session, he would not allow a vote on it. And there's no evidence whatsoever that he's going to change his mind on it."

Pushing the issue even though he knew it likely wouldn't pass still helped Abbott - who is running for his first re-election next year - energize social conservatives. But Straus could still be in the way when Texas lawmakers return in 2019. He has remained House speaker for a decade and has said he intends to run for a record sixth term.

The first collapse of the bathroom bill in May laid bare an escalating feud in Texas between ascendant social conservatives and moderate Republicans, and the mutual distrust only seemed to deepen over summer.

RELATED: San Antonio mayor joins growing opposition to 'bathroom bill'

Corporate heavyweights from Amazon to Exxon Mobil lined up against the bathroom bill, as did police chiefs from the state's largest cities, women's groups and religious organizations. The opposition was still relentless, with opponents organizing nearly daily demonstrations at the state Capitol and threatening costly boycotts.

For Abbott, it was an unceremonious and deflating finish to a special legislative session that only he had the power to order. Other measures he championed collapsed, including taxpayer-funded vouchers that let students attend private schools.

The governor has the money to likely outspend anyone as he seeks re-election, but in dragging lawmakers back to work in July, he sought to punch back at criticism that he had grown disengaged and politically vulnerable - especially to a possible challenge from the right during March's GOP primary.

The only surefire way the bathroom bill will again fail next time is if beleaguered Texas Democrats make sweeping gains in 2018 or topple Abbott. But the party still has not identified a credible candidate to run for governor, and Democratic U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro reiterated Wednesday that it won't be him.

VIDEO: Visit San Antonio fighting 'bathroom bill' for sake of local economy

"I'm convinced we're going to have a strong slate of people who will step forward," said Castro, whose party has not won statewide office in Texas since 1994, the nation's longest losing streak.

Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a firebrand who was Donald Trump's top Texas surrogate during the presidential race, was even angrier about the bathroom bill's demise. He even suggested Straus would have abandoned Texas hero William B. Travis at the battle of the Alamo in 1836.

"Thank goodness Travis didn't have the speaker at the Alamo," Patrick said. "He might have been the first one over the wall."

Patrick said big businesses that predicted bathroom bill backlash were misled.

"I respect businesses have their opinion and point of view. They were wrong," Patrick said. "All the data they had were wrong."

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Texas Among States With Anti-Transgender ‘Bathroom Bills’ on the Horizon

Read article : Texas Among States With Anti-Transgender ‘Bathroom Bills’ on the Horizon

The battle over America’s bathrooms has raged into 2017, as advocates in more than half a dozen states are seeking to enact “bathroom bills” that would require people to use the facilities that correspond to their sex assigned at birth.

Even though North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory was defeated in November’s election, the controversial legislation the Republican signed last year placing restrictions on who can use sex-segregated bathrooms in the state, House Bill 2, remains in place. Now a number of legislators in other states are putting forward their own cases to clamp down on who uses what bathrooms, and in the process targeting the transgender and gender non-binary communities.

The National Conference on State Legislators said on Thursday that legislation has been introduced recently in eight states, including Texas, to restrict the use of spaces such as bathrooms, changing facilities, shower rooms and locker rooms by requiring that they be used according to a person's biological sex.

Keep up with this story and more by subscribing now

On Thursday in Texas, Senate Bill 6, aka the Texas Privacy Act, was filed. The state's lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, a conservative Christian, said the bill would protect the privacy of people living in the state. The bill also would allow the Texas attorney general to issue fines of between $1,000 and $1,500 per day for a first offense—and between $10,000 and $10,500 a day for the second offense—to school districts, charter schools and state agencies that violate the law. You can read the contents of the bill here.

Related: Critics says Texas ‘bathroom bill’ targets LGBT rights 

“We know it’s going to be a tough fight. The forces of fear and misinformation will pull out all the stops, both in Texas and nationally,” Patrick said at a press conference in Austin while unveiling the bill. “You can mark today as the day that Texas is drawing a line in the sand and saying no. The privacy and safety of Texans is our first priority, not political correctness.”

The Texas effort comes despite a warning from the Texas Association of Business that said the state could lose between $964 million and $8.5 billion and nearly 200,000 jobs as a result. North Carolina suffered economic losses after its House Bill 2 became law, including the relocation of major sporting events out of the state and some companies pulling back from planned job growth. Patrick said critics were dispersing “fake news” about the risk to Texas's economy, adding that North Carolina is “doing just fine.”

.@DanPatrick & @LoisKolkhorst introduced a bill that discriminates against & blocks facility access for trans Texans https://t.co/YKJaoOvAdH

— HumanRightsCampaign (@HRC)

January 5, 2017

Following the furor that erupted last year over North Carolina’s law, the U.S. Department of Education issued a letter providing guidance to schools on Title IX requirements. The letter said that transgender students in public schools should be allowed to use sex-segregated facilities that are based on their gender identity, which is not the same as sex assigned at birth.

“Bathroom bills” have become something of a national phenomenon in recent years: Between 2013 and 2016, bathroom bills or similar legislation were considered in more than two dozen states. Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Texas and Wisconsin all considered bathroom bills last year. Still, North Carolina remains the only state that has enacted such a law. Below are the states with prefiled and pending bathroom bill legislation.

Minnesota

Introduced on Thursday, House File 41, aka the Student Privacy Act, would require that all restrooms, locker rooms, shower rooms and changing rooms used by multiple students “be designated for the exclusive use” of male and female students only. The bill defines sex as the sex assigned at birth and determined by chromosomes. The bill, which is pending, allows schools to provide special accommodations for students in certain circumstances, including a single-occupancy stall. 

Kentucky

House Bill 106 was introduced on January 3 by Democratic State Representative Rich Nelson. Under the bill, the executive branch of the state government would require every multi-occupancy bathroom or changing facility to be used by people according to the gender corresponding to that listed on their birth certificates. The law would also require cities, counties and local municipalities to “designate every multiple occupancy bathroom or changing facility it controls to only be used by persons based on their ‘biological sex.’”

Nelson, who also introduced a religious freedom bill this week, said that while he was not aware of any current issue with bathrooms in Kentucky, “we want to be vigilant about what could happen.” You can read the contents of the bill here.

Missouri

Senate Bill 98, introduced on January 4, states that all school restrooms, locker rooms, and shower rooms used by multiple students must be designated for and used by male or female students only. The bill states that “at no time shall a student be allowed to access a public school restroom, locker room, or shower room designated for use by the opposite biological sex.” Read the bill here.

Making sure all the bases are covered, Missouri also has a pending House Bill 202, which “requires all public restrooms, other than single occupancy restrooms, to be gender-divided.” According to the bill’s text, HB 202 is the same as HB 1847, which was introduced in 2016.

South Carolina

South Carolina’s House Bill 3012, prefiled in mid-December, says local governments cannot pass laws allowing people to use public accommodations, bathrooms and changing rooms regardless of their biological sex. Local governments would be allowed to pass laws requiring people to use such facilities based only on their biological sex.

Virginia

The state prefiled House Bill 1612 on Tuesday. It says people are not allowed to enter opposite-sex facilities, “subject to certain exceptions.” Also known as the Physical Privacy Act, it was filed in the Virginia House of Delegates by Delegate Bob Marshall.

On Thursday, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe signed an executive order prohibiting the state “from doing business with entities that discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity.” He called his policy “another giant step forward in our fight to ensure that all Virginians receive the full benefits of their citizenship, without regard to their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Alabama

Senate Bill 1 was prefiled by Alabama Senator Phil Williams in May; it is a similar legislative effort couched in the language of “privacy.” Under the bill, businesses with restrooms, bathrooms or changing facilities would have to choose between three options: have facilities used by only one person at a time; have facilities used by multiple people of the same gender; or have an attendant stationed outside the bathroom “to monitor the appropriate use of the restroom and answer any questions or concerns posed by users.”

The bill also says bathrooms and changing rooms are “places of increased vulnerability and present the potential for crimes against individuals utilizing those facilities,” including voyeurism, exhibitionism, molestation, and assault and battery.

Washington

Prefiled in early December, House Bill 1101 has some of the harshest language of any "bathroom bill." It states that a person who is “preoperative, nonoperative, or otherwise has genitalia of a different gender from that which the facility is segregated” can, by law, be denied the use of a bathroom. The bill doesn’t say exactly how that would be determined.