State Senator Says TSA Anti Groping Bill is Dead. It Will Not Pass Due To Speaker Straus's Bad Timing

State Senator Says TSA Anti Groping Bill is Dead. It Will Not Pass Due to Speaker Straus's Bad Timing

As I predicted, the State Affairs Committee bailed out again and cancelled their meeting Monday morning. This left the TSA and Sanctuary Cities Legislation looking pretty dead.

Then the unexpected happened on Monday when Speaker Joe Straus, who just recently mocked the Anti Groping Bill by calling it a publicity stunt, did a shocking 180% turn around and revived the TSA bill by ending his block and letting it some to the House Floor for a second reading.

Everyone Start Celebrating right?

To be honest, I actually got very excited at first and was thankful that Joe Straus did the right thing.

But then I got this personal email from a State Senator explaining to me that the TSA Bill will most likely not get passed and was Dead on Arrival.


Here is the email message I got from this State Senator:

The TSA Anti-Groping Bill will most likely not get passed by the end of the session tomorrow. It all comes down to timing. Timing is a matter of Constitutional requirements. One is a House Bill the other a Senate Bill. House still has to vote out on third reading tomorrow.   Even though they are similar, one of them must go back to the other's committee, then back to floor to be voted on separate days after posting for 24 hours in between. Clock will not permit without suspension of rules which Dem's will not give. Sanctuary city Senate bill has been sitting in House for thirteen days with no action.

So all of this for nothing!?  It was all just a show?

It seems like the real Publicity Stunt is Speaker Joe Straus waiting till the last minute to bring the bill to the house floor for a vote and doing so with the knowledge that it does not stand a chance to pass because it was brought to the floor too late. I suppose it makes sense though. The Speaker gets a win win. He kills the bill that he didn't like by waiting to bring it to the floor, and at the same time he gets to say that he actually tried to get the bill passed.

This State Senator also makes another very interesting point. The Senate PASSED the Sanctuary Cities Bill and it sat in the House State Affairs Committee for13 days with no action! The Sanctuary Cities Bill was an emergency item this session and is actually part of the Republican Party platform and yet a Republican controlled House could not get it passed.

The State Affairs Committee was in charge of the TSA and Sanctuary Cities Legislation. It is headed up by Byron Cook who was part of the Gang of 11 Republicans who joined forces with the Democrats to get Straus elected as Speaker. Straus could have gotten whatever bills he wanted out of that important committee.


The Bottom line is that, at the end of the day, a Republican Dominated House could not get these important Republican Bills passed in this Special Session, and it all comes down to the leadership of Speaker Joe Straus and his elaborate "publicity stunt".

I sure hope I am wrong and I hope that something miraculous will happen so that these bills can get passed. It can only be possible if the rules are suspended and this is not easy to do so is not looking good... I hope they can do it though

Don't get me wrong. Overall this was a good session and the super-majority of Republicans were able to get some good bills passed. But these special session stunts, and even the regular session stunts like some of the strongest conservatives getting hurt in redistricting, took everyone by surprise and they reflect poorly on the Speaker