Lucky Break
May 26th, 2007 at 2:38 am
During the near meltdown of the House tonight, a very bad bill that previously had wide support managed to die. Because it was after midnight by the time the House got to HB 3678 by Rep. Charlie Howard (R-Sugar Land), a two-thirds vote was necessary to suspend the rules to take up the bill. The 93-50 vote to consider the bill wasn’t enough.
The only difference between the House and Senate versions of the bill was that the Senate had stripped an amendment added on the House floor by Rep. Yvonne Davis (D-Dallas). The amendment had ensured that the “limited public forums” required by the bill would not be used to discriminate on the basis of sex, race, religion or sexual orientation. Howard had opposed the amendment, and all other amendments, on the House floor, saying that it would open the door to litigation on the bill.
In moving to suspend the necessary rules to consider HB 3678 tonight, Howard said he would move not to accept the Senate changes, and to have a conference committee work out the differences. Davis asked whether Howard intended to put her amendment back in. Howard responded that he would work toward a bill that passed constitutional muster.
Rep. Scott Hochberg (D-Houston) spoke against the bill, saying that Howard’s idea of constitutional muster did not include the Davis amendment, though the House clearly voted in favor of the amendment on April 25, with a vote of 86-48.
The 93-50 vote in favor of the bill would have been enough to send it to conference committee, had the bill been considered when it was eligible before midnight. The speaker’s three-hour absence, the series of parliamentary inquiries and a general sense of turmoil in the House meant the death of this legislation. Don’t worry. Kids still have their First Amendment rights. Now they won’t be forced to listen to evangelizing during morning announcements.
May 26th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
[…] to what was reported last night, the so-called “Religious Viewpoints Antidiscrimination Act” was really only […]