Texas House speaker talks anti-LGBTQ bills, Chapter 313 and casinos

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Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan stated Thursday a choose committee he fashioned in 2021 will tackle quite a few social points that conservatives are pushing this legislative session.

During a media briefing on the Capitol, the Beaumont Republican was requested if he had any urge for food this session for GOP legislation targeting LGBTQ Texans, particularly a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for transgender children.

“It’s gonna be part of a much larger issue,” Phelan stated. “I created a select committee on youth health and safety for this specific reason, dealing with all these issues, whether it’s the issue you highlight or whether it’s issues in the classroom.”

Phelan stated there are “some — very select, I think — school districts” which have been “entirely inappropriate in getting between the discussions of the parents and children.” He famous he has a primary grader, “and if he came home and talked about sexuality in any form or fashion to me, I will be down to that school in minutes.”

His feedback signaled some solidarity with these advocating for a Florida-style ban on classroom lessons about gender identity and sexual orientation on the elementary college stage. One invoice filed in Texas would lengthen by center college. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the presiding officer within the Senate, has stated he wants to pass such legislation, which critics warn might additional marginalize LGBTQ college students and households whereas exposing academics to potential authorized threats.

Phelan fashioned the choose committee in September 2021, along with his workplace saying on the time that the purpose was to “improve coordination of mental health services, education, juvenile justice, and family and protective services for Texas youth,” notably after the COVID-19 pandemic. He expanded the committee after final yr’s Uvalde massacre and tasked it with wanting into college shootings. The panel’s chair is Rep. J.M. Lozano, R-Kingsville, and its vice chair is Rep. Ann Johnson, D-Houston, who’s a lesbian.

Phelan stated he additionally needs a concentrate on the affect social media corporations have on youngsters. After being reelected as speaker Tuesday, he delivered a speech by which he stated that main tech corporations are “prey[ing] on the insecurities of children, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation, sexualization and indoctrination.”

Phelan has an advanced historical past with LGBTQ points. He stated in 2019 that he was “done talking about bashing on the gay community” however in his first yr as speaker, he allowed passage of a controversial invoice to restrict transgender students’ participation in school athletics.

Still, Phelan stored off the ground laws to outlaw gender-affirming care for youths, regardless of intense strain from his proper. He didn’t particularly tackle that proposal Thursday aside from to say it is among the points the choose committee would look at.

Here are a number of different matters Phelan addressed within the briefing Thursday:

Democratic committee chairs

A day after shutting down a extremely anticipated effort to eliminate Democratic committee chairs within the Republican-controlled House, Phelan defended the observe as a “longstanding tradition” that makes Texas distinctive. He stated so many individuals are shifting to Texas as a result of the “Texas Legislature, especially the Texas House, delivers on our promises” to voters.

Chapter 313

Phelan reiterated his need to revive Chapter 313, the corporate tax break program that lawmakers allowed to run out final yr. He stated that call was “a little shortsighted” and emboldened close by states who’ve their very own tax incentives.

“This session we can have a new program,” Phelan stated. “We can have all that oversight and and transparency and accountability and hopefully move forward, just so we can compete with other states.”

Uvalde capturing

Phelan stated there might be “plenty more debate” within the House concerning the botched law-enforcement response to the Uvalde bloodbath. He instructed the House investigative committee on the Uvalde capturing might replace its report “in the coming days or weeks.” That report first came out in July and cited “systemic failures” within the legislation enforcement response. Hundreds of officers who responded to the varsity, together with these from the Texas Department of Public Safety, didn’t confront the shooter for greater than an hour after preliminary experiences of pictures fired.

As for the fate of DPS Director Steve McCraw, Phelan stated McCraw “serves at the pleasure of the governor, and so that’s the governor’s decision.” But Phelan stated McCraw was “open” with the House investigative committee “and we think this next session he will be equally as open.”

Phelan traveled to Uvalde final week and visited with households of victims. The metropolis’s state consultant, Democrat Tracy King, cited that outreach as he gave a speech Tuesday seconding Phelan’s nomination for speaker.

Phelan stated Thursday that King can have a invoice this session to boost the age to purchase an assault weapon, a precedence of some Uvalde households. Phelan stated he had the “deepest respect” for King however stated — as he has earlier than — that he doesn’t consider the House has the votes to go such a invoice, even setting apart constitutional issues that Gov. Greg Abbott has cited.

“[Those issues] will not prevent a bill from being discussed and being debated,” Phelan stated. “I just know, given I can count votes, and I told the families very candidly in Uvalde, ‘I don’t want to mislead you. I just want to tell you, this is where the votes are in the Texas House.’”

Casinos

Advocates for increasing playing in Texas are making ready to make a second push this session after seeing their proposals fizzle out in 2021. Phelan reiterated that he has no downside with their trigger, noting he lives “a stone’s throw” from casinos in his district bordering Louisiana.

He continued to emphasise, although, that he doesn’t wish to see a scenario in Texas the place individuals “walk into every convenience store and see 15 … slot machines.”

“I want to see destination-style casinos that are high quality and that create jobs and that improve the lifestyle of those communities,” he stated, including that he thinks the “average voter would approve” that “in this day and age.”