AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The House passed the most contentious anti-abortion bill of the legislative session Thursday but abruptly scrapped an ambitious $3 billion plan to overhaul the way the state pays for public schools. The moves came amid stalling tactics from Democrats trying to upend a GOP-backed push to block gay marriage in Texas even if the U.S. Supreme Court legalizes it.
Midnight is the deadline for House bills to get their first vote by the full lower chamber. Measures that don’t make it are considered dead, though they could live on as amendments attached to other proposals.
Outnumbered Democrats have been stalling all week, asking questions to draw out floor debate on as many bills as possible.
The slow play targeted a House bill prohibiting state, county and local officials from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Gay marriage was banned under an amendment to the Texas Constitution approved by voters in 2005, but the proposal by Republican Rep. Cecil Bell of Magnolia is designed to further shield the state from a possible high court ruling superseding that.
The effort effectively quashed other bills too, though. Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock, chairman of the powerful House Public Education Committee, began laying out a bipartisan plan he described as a near-total teardown of the current school finance system - but pulled it back moments later.
He also noted that passing the plan could be largely ceremonial since “the Senate will almost certainly not even consider it.”
Texas is embroiled in its sixth major lawsuit since 1984 challenging funding for classrooms as insufficient and unfairly distributed among school districts in wealthy and poor parts of the state. A state district judge has already declared the system unconstitutional, and if the Texas Supreme Court upholds that decision on appeal, it will order the Legislature to devise a new plan.
Aycock had hoped to act without waiting for the courts. Still, since the high court won’t decide the case until after the legislative session ends June 1, lawmakers may have to convene a special session - and could yet use his proposal as a basis then.
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CRIMINAL HISTORY
The Texas House voted to stop most state agencies from asking job seekers about their criminal history on their initial application.
The move is intended to help ex-convicts get state jobs.
Democratic Rep. Eric Johnson’s measure passed Thursday and faces a final vote before heading to the Senate.
Some state agencies are prohibited from hiring anyone with a felony conviction, and Johnson said his bill wouldn’t change that.
But the bill would keep agencies from automatically filtering out those with criminal convictions. Questions about an applicant’s criminal past wouldn’t come up until they are interviewed or offered employment.
Johnson says the move would mirror a trend among some major companies like Koch Industries, Wal-Mart and about a dozen states.
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RAISING THE WAGE
The House voted down an effort to support a constitutional amendment to raise the minimum wage in Texas from $7.25 an hour to at least $10.10. The chamber’s Republican majority also voted down an amendment that would have required equal pay for women who do the same work as men.
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ON DECK:
The Senate won’t return until next week and two hot-button items are expected to get committee hearings: licensed open carry of handguns and mandatory electrocardiogram screenings for public school athletes. The open carry legislation has been stalled for more than month after both chambers passed separate versions.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The reality is, there’s a lot of good bills that die. A lot of bad bills die, too.” - Plano Republican Rep. Jeff Leach on the midnight deadline for House bills to get their first vote in that chamber.
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