Texas lawmakers working to clean up bathroom business

Published 4:18 pm Friday, May 26, 2017

AUSTIN — With four days remaining in the 85th Legislature, lawmakers on Friday were still deadlocked over transgender bathroom use, leaving the prospect of a special session on the horizon.

Senators on Thursday rejected House amendments to Senate Bill 2078, prompting the creation of a Senate conference committee late in the day.

House conferees were yet to be named to work on a compromise as of early Friday afternoon; to pass a bathroom bill by the end of session on Monday, a conference committee would have to submit a proposal by midnight Sunday.

“This is an issue about nothing,” said Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, who earlier in the week slammed the door on House Bill 4180, which had ended up with a Senate bathroom amendment he couldn’t live with. “What’s broken?”

But aside from the predictable wedge between Democrats and Republicans, the bathroom battle has also put into sharp relief another split: one between GOP conservatives led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and a business-dominated establishment that considers LGBT restrictions an unnecessary distraction that could cost the state untold amounts in lost conventions, athletic events and tourism.

A conservative coalition, including Texas Values, the Texas Pastor Council and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention in a statement dismissed the amended Senate bill as too weak.

“This amendment does not define ‘biological sex’ … which links gender directly to what appears on a person’s birth certificate; therefore a student’s biological sex could still be linked to their ‘gender identity’ under policies such as those of Fort Worth ISD and Dripping Springs ISD,” the coalition said. 

Moreover, “the amendment does not prohibit biological males from declaring themselves female at will, and biological females from declaring themselves to be male,” according to their the statement.

But the Keep Texas Open for Business coalition opposed what it characterized as discriminatory legislation.

The business coalition laid out its position in an open letter to the states top-three political leaders — Gov. Greg Abbott, Patrick and House Speaker Joe Straus.

If adopted, the business group said, a bathroom bill “could lose billions of dollars in GDP, a critical loss of revenue that would profoundly threaten the state’s ability to fund education, transportation and other essential services,” according to the letter. “And thousands of jobs could be lost, according to the Texas Association of Business’ economic impact study.”

The group also cited potential harm to Texas’ travel and tourism industry, which includes $68.7 billion in travel spending, generates $6.2 billion in state and local taxes and over 1 million jobs supported by travel.

North Carolina, the first state to pass a bathroom bill limiting LGBT protections, stood to lose $3.76 billion in lost business over a 12-year period as a result of its law, according to an Associated Press study.

Patrick made a “Women’s Privacy Act” one of his top priorities for the session. 

Mark Jones, a Rice University political science professor, said that support from Patrick, “the most powerful man in the Texas legislature,” was the key to giving the bill traction in Texas. 

But Jones said that Patrick may have to settle for a law that falls short of his ideal instead of going for something stronger in a special session that would cost millions and could well make him look petty.

“Dan Patrick will get a revision of SB 2078, that much is clear,” Jones said. “That’ll be about as far as it’ll be pushed.”

North Carolina earlier this year repealed part of its bathroom bill, prompting the NCAA to end its boycott of scheduling college championship events in the state.

The Associated Press in April reported that “the NCAA … ‘reluctantly’ agreed to consider North Carolina as a host for championship events again after the state rolled back a law that limited protections for LGBT people.

“The governing body said Tuesday its Board of Governors had reviewed moves to repeal the ‘bathroom bill’ and replace it with a compromise law. The NCAA offered a lukewarm endorsement, saying the new law ‘meets the minimal NCAA requirements.’

“The organization had been a key opponent of the original law. Its events carry major economic power: The North Carolina Sports Association had estimated more than $250 million in potential losses from 130 event bids submitted to the NCAA.”

The North Carolina move was perceived as a step forward, while a special session and a highly restrictive Texas bill that controlled public restrooms outside schools would be seen as “moving backwards,” Jones said.

Only Texas’ governor can call a special session, and Jones speculated that the business community is lobbying Abbott not to do so.

“It’s not in Abbott’s interest,” Jones said. “The avalanche of negative pressure Texas will receive will be incalculable.”

John Austin covers the Texas Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at jaustin@cnhi.com.