Misplaced Priorities – Texas Republicans Hand LGBTQ Caucus Victory, Fail to Safeguard Children In Passing Governor’s Priority Broadband Bill

Texas Republicans who held the majority in the Texas House took several days off in the regular session. They took a total of 64 days off during the 140-day session. However, this is not too far from the amount of time they spent in service in recent years. So, when they give the excuse that they “ran out of time”, that simply isn’t reality. The reality is they did not prioritize the priorities of the Republican Party of Texas. They also did not prioritize the safeguarding of children. So, what did they prioritize?

Although well-intentioned, the bill for Extending Medicaid and Healthy Women Texas coverage for a year past live birth or miscarriage for women failed to mention the “men” who get pregnant and have periods too. At least the legislature has not fallen into the language traps set by the left. Most Texans would probably agree that women need follow-up care after pregnancy. Women usually see their OBGYN six weeks postpartum and that is all, even those with insurance. While it is all well and good that women will have the chance to receive follow-up care for complications relating to miscarriage or pregnancy, Texans who elect Republicans to office expect their priorities to be passed as well. Expanding Medicaid benefits is not a Republican priority.

House Republicans also passed a bill to create an Office of Equity for the Texas Department of Health which was supported by the following Republicans: State Reps. Steve Allison (San Antonio), Brad Buckley (Salado), Gary Gates (Rosenberg), Dan Huberty (Humble), Todd Hunter (Corpus Christi), Kyle Kacal (College Station), Ken King (Canadian), Stephanie Klick (Ft. Worth), John Kuempel (Seguin), Stan Lambert (Abilene), Morgan Meyer (Dallas), Geanie Morrison (Victoria), Chris Paddie (Marshall), Four Price (Amarillo), John Raney (Bryan), and Jim Murphy (Houston). The bill sailed through Stephanie Klick’s Public Health Committee and the Calendars Committee led by Dustin Burrows, two of the culprits who held up Republican Priorities such as banning gender modification of minors.

The bill creating the office of equity failed in the Senate but that didn’t stop the Abbott appointees at the Texas Department of Health Services from creating an Office of Equity. What will an Office of Equity do? Maybe something like creating a “gender health equity unit” to make sure providers change the language to erase the reality of biological sex or sexual dimorphism. Would they prioritize race in responding to a health crisis following the example of the Biden administration? The language for HB 4139 which would have created the office vaguely described the many functions of the office. The description sounded like it was pulled straight off a resume-building website: “investigate, examine, advise, develop, monitor, coordinate, solicit, network, provide, contract, publicize, pursue”. You can just hear the sound of money being sucked out of the taxpayer’s pockets for this woke nonsense.

The Republicans handed the LGBTQ Caucus a victory by failing to pass a ban on gender modification of minors and by excluding an amendment from Governor Abbott’s priority legislation to expand broadband in Texas. Representative Stephanie Klick (R) was key in killing most of the bills banning gender modification and helped provide cover for Governor Abbott who doesn’t want to pass the bills.

House Bill 5 which related to expanding broadband across Texas was passed. This would expand broadband into rural areas of the state and give schools in rural areas access. This was one of the governor’s priority bills. It may be important to all Texans to have broadband in the year 2022, and if you’re running a business in Texas you need internet service. But Republicans failed to pass the bill with an amendment that would have favored giving the contracts to providers that would maintain a program that would by default block pornographic materials. This amendment originally passed the house despite the objections of 34 of 36 members of the LGBTQ Legislative Caucus. Why are LGBTQ allies always reluctant to safeguard children? The amendment ultimately failed to be added in the Senate version when Republican Representative Trent Ashby (R) motioned that the House not concur in the Senate amendments and a conference committee be requested to adjust the differences between the two bills. This committee which was chaired by Ashby consisted of Republican Representative Chris Paddie (who is no longer seeking office), Republican Rep. Charles Anderson, and two members of the LGBTQ Legislative Caucus Christina Morales (D) and Rep. Toni Rose (D). The committee removed the safeguarding amendment. Rep. Israel (also a member of the LGBTQ caucus) had originally objected to the amendment (Amendment 8 offered by Rep Jeff Cason (R)) stating it was not germane to the bill.

Part of the package that Speaker Phelan promoted included a bill relating to the transportation of certain vaccines for use in home health care and hospice care. The only reason it is getting a mention by MadMommaBear is that the language of the bill refers to vaccines as “dangerous drugs”. This makes one wonder if anyone even bothers to read the bills before they pass them.

Texas Republicans have not passed legislation to safeguard children from child gender modification or from obscene materials in schools. There has been legislation proposed in the last two sessions, but Governor Abbott has not had the political will to get these bills passed. His priorities seem to be with the LGBTQ caucus which is also opposed to safeguarding.