Analysis: Playing chicken with the bathroom bill in the Texas Legislature
Can you dare a cautious governor to lead?
Texas is in the process of finding out.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has staked some of his political capital on what is now universally known as the “bathroom bill” — legislation that would regulate transgender Texans’ choices of which facilities to use in public buildings and overturn related local laws. Patrick is trying to pull together enough votes in the Senate to send that bill to the House.
The reception in the House has been frosty. Speaker Joe Straus said in front of an audience that the bill is not “the most urgent concern of mine.” He then told a state group and a San Antonio business group that they need to lobby against it if they want to stop it. Notably, he called out Gov. Greg Abbott, saying it would be helpful to legislators to hear what the state's chief executive thinks about this one.
That's a bit of political witchcraft: The House stands poised to vote, but not without a puff of white or black smoke from the jefe's office. The Senate’s leader, who has been campaigning loudly on the bathroom bill for the better part of the past year, is trying to sell senators of his own party on the idea.
Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2017/02/08/analysis-playing-chicken-bathroom-bill-texas-legislature/
