Unsigned, Sealed, Delivered
May 8th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
In an elaborate press conference today Rick Perry announced he would allow HB 1098, the bill blocking his HPV vaccine mandate, to go into law without his signature. His announcement came a matter of hours shy of the deadline to veto the bill. The governor said he knew the Legislature would simply overturn a veto, so he wasn’t going to drag out the conflict any longer.
In the speech before the announcement Perry got his licks in. He railed against the lawmakers who led the movement to overturn his mandate. The issue itself was “hijacked by politics and posturing,” Perry said. The governor had “never seen so much misinformation” in a debate. Women’s health was always his primary concern, he later said, but it was “sacrificed at the altar of political expedience.”
Addressing his critics, Perry said he was “mystified” by claims the vaccine would change teens’ sexual behavior. He said debate over parental control should have been a non-issue because of the opt-out clause. And his critics could not “genuinely” base their concerns on any sound science.
Probably most importantly, though, he said that if the conflict had been just about separation of powers — many claimed Perry was legislating from the executive office — then the Legislature would have done everything it could to improve access to HPV. Instead it included a rider in the budget prohibiting the state office of Health and Human Services from requiring the vaccine. “This is shameful,” Perry said.
Now, he did do all this while accompanied by five women affected by or working closely with HPV and cervical cancer (a couple of whom testified during committee hearings). The whole time, HB 1098 and two fancy pens were sitting on a desk next to the microphone stand, being conspicuously ignored. The only time he acknowledge the ceremonial blue folder was to dismiss it, as he concluded the conference with a video from a terminally ill young woman. He was giving Heather Burcham the last word because what she said would be “infinitely more important than anything written in that bill.” You could hear the sneer.
But given Perry’s power-grab track record this session, you can maybe see why lawmakers were concerned about this early reach. He also didn’t contact legislators with nearly identical bills prior to his bombshell announcement, as Jessica Farrar told us months ago. Their support could have perhaps facilitated some kind of compromise. And three words that were definitely not mentioned today were “Merck” and “Mike Toomey,” the vaccine’s manufacturer and their high-powered lobbyist, who happens to be Perry’s former chief of staff.
To his credit, Perry sounded passionate the entire time. The gov can put on quite a show.
