Gov. Abbott Calls Second Special Session After Texas House Democrats Flee the State to Avoid Voting
Today, Governor Greg Abbott announced a second Special Session after the Texas House failed to pass any legislation before the last day of the first special session due to Texas House Democrats fleeing the state to avoid voting on values issues important to Texans. The new Special Session will begin Saturday, August 7, at noon.
The second Special Session agenda has several new items added, but still has the issues of fair play in women’s sports, election integrity, and regulation of chemical abortions. However, Gov. Abbott did not add the issue of protecting children from sex-reassignment surgeries to the Second Special call.
Jonathan Covey, Policy Director for Texas Values said:
“We applaud Gov. Abbott for immediately scheduling the second Special Session and not getting deterred by Democratic antics. We elected our representatives and it’s their duty to show up, do their job, and vote. We thank Gov. Abbott for including the issues of fair play in women’s sports, election integrity, and regulation of chemical abortions, but also urge our elected leaders to pass legislation and Gov. Abbott to sign a law protecting children from harmful sex-reassignment surgeries. We know that Rep. Matt Krause already has enough Texas House members supporting legislation on this issue for it to pass.”
The proclamation did not amend its request on the fair play issue to include NCAA collegiate sports. Instead, Gov. Abbott calls for an identical bill to S.B. 29 that only prohibits biological males from competing against females in University interscholastic League sports.
The Texas Senate successfully passed two bills on the issue of fair play in the first special session that began July 8th. One of those bills, S.B. 32 included collegiate sports when prohibiting males from competing in female sports. Texas Values believes the best approach is to pass legislation on the Save Womens Sports issues that cover high school and college.