AUSTIN, Texas — After dozens of Senate bills missed the deadline to pass before the end of the 87th Texas Legislative Session, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick asked the governor to call a special session to take up multiple "conservative bills."
Tuesday was the last day members in the Texas House of Representatives could take initial votes on Senate bills not on the local and consent calendar. When the clock struck midnight, many members cheered and waived transgender flags, a nod that Senate Bill 29, the bill banning transgender students from playing public school sports based on their gender identities, failed.
The bill’s proponents said it was necessary to protect girls’ sports, arguing that allowing transgender girls to play on school sports teams gave them an unfair advantage because they have higher levels of testosterone. LGBTQ advocates said the legislation was harmful and discriminatory against transgender Texans.
On Wednesday morning, Lt. Gov. Patrick took to Twitter, publicly asking Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session in June, specifically because the House didn't pass three bills, SB29, SB10 and SB12.
Senate Bill 10 stops cities and counties from using taxpayer dollars to hire lobbyists. The bill was postponed numerous times during the House debate on Tuesday as Republican lawmakers tried to work out their differences on the legislation. But eventually the member sponsoring the bill in the House, Rep. Chris Paddie (R-Marshall), postponed the bill until Sept. 18 – when the legislature is no longer in session.
Senate Bill 12 would regulate large social media companies, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, by prohibiting them from banning users based on a person's posts sharing political or religious views.
About two hours after Patrick posted his tweet, Gov. Abbott responded with a tweet of his own, writing, "Some are trying to end the game before the time clock has run out. There's still time remaining for the House and Senate to work together to get important conservative legislation to my desk. Members in both chambers need to be spending every minute of every day to accomplish that mission."
This isn't the first time Lt. Gov. Patrick has called on the governor to call a special session. In 2017, he called on the governor, then seemingly forced a special session by holding hostage a sunset bill to keep some State agencies operating. Lawmakers were called back to Austin, but the two bills Patrick wanted to be passed still didn't make it to the governor's desk.
The legislative session ends on May 31.
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