Texas 'bathroom' bills stalled in special legislative session
Source: Reuters
#POLITICS AUGUST 14, 2017 / 7:07 AM / 4 HOURS AGO
Texas 'bathroom' bills stalled in special legislative session
Jon Herskovitz
3 MIN READ
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Texas measures to restrict access for transgender people to bathrooms in schools and public buildings appear doomed this week after hundreds of businesses stood in opposition and moderate Republican powerbrokers blocked the bills.
The so-called bathroom bills have caused rifts among Republicans who control the state's legislature, leaving no likely path to passage before a 30-day special session wraps on Wednesday, analysts and lawmakers said.
"The bathroom bill in this session is dead and buried with dirt over its coffin," said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston.
Enactment in Texas, the most populous Republican-dominated state, could give momentum to other socially conservative states for additional action on an issue that has become a flashpoint in the U.S. culture wars.
But House Speaker Joe Straus, a pro-business Republican who controls the agenda in the body, has shown little interest in passing a bathroom bill, which he said was not a priority.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-texas-lgbt-idUSKCN1AU15U