Lawmakers spend Day 2 sparring over Capitol rules. Mike Ward and Bobby Cervantes, HoustonChronicle.com
The House spat began when Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, offered an amendment to a general "housekeeping" resolution that House lawmakers take up at the start of every session to establish their operating rules. The proposal would have allowed restrooms on the House side of the Capitol to be used only by "a person based on the person's biological sex," the one on their birth certificate.
....
House Administration Committee Chairman Charlie Geren, a Fort Worth Republican who authored the rules resolution that typically passes without issue, immediately objected. He insisted that the amendment had nothing to with House operations and noted that policies governing statehouse restrooms are controlled by the State Preservation Board, of which he is a member.
So the entire argument, which took over half an hour, was really involving something that shouldn't have been an argument in the first place.
This is just outstanding.
And it's only going to get worse as a certain wing of a certain party seems bound and determined to make this entire session about Patrick's Potty Principles, playing right into the hands of lefty bloggers and politicians who are obsessed with the matter and see this (wrongly in my opinion) as the opening toward their path back to majorities in the Statehouse.
The fact of the matter is that, even IF these laws are passed (and I don't think they will be), the impact on the work-a-day lives of the average Texan is going to be immaterial. There are a lot of ways in which State government can truly affect your lives for the worse, but these bathroom bills aren't one of them.
This is par for the course with politics today, given the recent allegations that President-Elect Donald Trump is a fan of the pee as well, and we're all going to be worse off for it.
Because every minute spent on this is a minute not spent addressing the real issues facing the State in terms of transportation, other general infrastructure etc. You know, things the government should really be concerned about.
I never thought I'd say this, but save us Speaker Straus. Either that or Texas Government is going to devolve into a small-time parody of the Federal Government.
If we're not there already.
