With 80 House Members Supporting Texas Privacy Bill, Speaker Straus Continues to Block the Will of the People

“You don’t negotiate when you have 80 co-authors,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a response to the Texas House Friday night.

After House Speaker Joe Straus signaled on Friday that he was fine with allowing boys in girls’ restrooms, showers and locker rooms and he was not going to move legislation on privacy in showers, locker rooms, and bathrooms this session, Patrick fired back at a press conference reminding the Speaker that 80 House members were in support of HB 2899 and Gov. Abbott has indicated he would sign it if the bill came to his desk. 

Straus stood alone at a press conference saying he was done working on the issue while, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick appeared later a press conference with almost every member of Senate Republican Caucus standing with him in support of real privacy protection and property tax relief.

SEE: 700+ pastors, multitude of churches and organizations that want the Texas Legislature to protect privacy: http://tinyurl.com/700pastors and http://tinyurl.com/sb6businesses

HB 2899 is the House version of the Texas Privacy Act, which would prevent local governments from micromanaging bathroom policies via new ordinances and regulations that allow men and boys in girls’ showers, bathrooms, and locker rooms. HB 2899 was never given a vote by State Affairs Committee Chairman Byron Cook and stalled. The House later approved a “privacy amendment” on the floor which does nothing, according to media reports and education groups — a move which Patrick called unacceptable.

ALSO: Texas is still No. 1 for business after pushing privacy legislation for six months: http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/05/12/texas-named-best-state-business-13th-consecutive-year

“The Texas Senate sent a privacy bill to the House in March with plenty of time to find a solution to a growing problem. Speaker Straus has no one to blame but himself if a special session is called on privacy and property tax relief. It’s been clear all along that Speaker Straus was dead set on ignoring the will of Texas House members and instead driving his own agenda to kill privacy legislation. Even at the last hour, the Texas Senate has been willing work on a solution but Speaker Straus instead decided to ‘take his ball and go home’ as Lt. Gov. Patrick said in a press conference last night,” said Jonathan Saenz, President of Texas Values. “All objections to privacy legislation have been proved false. The stopping of privacy protection is all on Speaker Straus and his House leaders like Rep. Byron Cook.”

Patrick put the blame solely on Speaker Straus and gave him an ultimatum to approve property tax relief and the privacy act. “If not we will be in a special session caused by Joe Straus himself,” Patrick said.

Patrick was joined by the entire Republican membership of the Texas Senate at his press conference Friday evening. Calling out Straus’ obstructionism, Patrick noted privacy has the support of an overwhelming majority of Texas from most demographics “They don’t want their children, boys and girls, showering together,” Patrick said. “And women want to be protected.”

VIDEO: Watch our footage of the press conference here: https://www.facebook.com/texasvalues/videos/1336738799696588

DETAILS:
The most recent violation of privacy in a Texas public bathroom: https://txvalues.org/2017/04/28/coppell-isd-home-district-of-house-privacy-bill-author-allows-boys-in-girls-bathrooms

A list of privacy violation incidents from across Texas may be read at the following link:http://tinyurl.com/SB6Texasincidents (PDF).

About Texas Values

Texas Values is a nonprofit organization dedicated to standing for faith, family, and freedom in Texas. More information is available at txvalues.org