Texas House Committee Takes the Piss out of Abbott, Patrick for Wasting Time on Bathroom Bill
Joe Straus and Byron Cook, two retiring moderate Texas House Republicans, got in their last licks on their frequent opponents, Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, with the release of a Straus-commissioned report on Texas' economic competitiveness.
By publicly championing legislation last year to keep transgender people from choosing which public toilets to choose, the report argues, Patrick, Abbott and other Texas leaders drove business away, threatened the state's future prospects and wasted lawmakers' time that would've been better spent on issues such as education and property taxes.
"It concerned many business leaders when the governor added the [bathroom bill] as a priority in the 30-day special session because it endangered the state's competitive edge," the report from the House Select Committee on Economic Competitiveness says. "Ultimately small and large businesses engaged and had to devote an extraordinary amount of effort and resources on this needless legislation."
Straus, the House speaker, put together the select committee after regular and special sessions that he felt threatened Texas' standing in the global business community. Straus also faced criticism from Abbott after refusing to allow the bathroom bill to come to a vote on the House floor. He installed Cook, a longtime ally, as the committee's chairman and stocked the rest of the committee with Democrats and Republicans, among them Houston-area Rep. Sarah Davis, who've clashed with state leadership as it's lurched to the right. Considering that, the committee's conclusions, which came after hours of testimony from law enforcement, LGBTQ people and the Texas business community, don't come as a surprise.
Read more: http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/texas-house-committee-says-bathroom-bill-was-waste-of-time-10467898
