On May 25th the ACT ! For America Houston Chapter issued a news alert publicizing the failure of SB531 (ALAC) to receive enough votes to move the bill out of the House Calendars Committee before the May 24th deadline, which meant the bill could not progress in the 84th Legislative Session.
AS many of you may now have heard, SB 531 (ALAC) did NOT receive enough votes to move the bill out of the House Calendars Committee before last night’s deadline, meaning that the bill can no longer progress in this Legislative Session.
ALAC is unlikely to be revived for the 2015 session.
We are awaiting for the minutes of last nights Calendar Committee Meeting to be published to learn more about how the votes played out, but it appears that a stunning last-minute reversal by a co-Sponsor of the Bill who had previously been a long-time supporter of ALAC abruptly switched her vote in the Calendars Committee to NO from Yes which prevented the Bill from loving forward.
This came as a particular blow not only because the fatal strike appears to have come from one of our own, and also not only because there were enough votes anticipated on the House Floor for SB 531 to pass the final hurdles in the House to be sent to the Governor’s desk for signature, but the real sting is that it seems as though it was a Houston area representative whose last minute voted switch caused the Bill to fail.
The news alert further explains:
Time will allow us to review how yesterday’s events played out, to plan better for the future and most importantly to hold accountable those who say one thing to get elected, but vote against the wishes of their constituents once in office.
Publicity of this event through social media networks prompted Rep. Debbie Riddle to respond:
I strongly oppose Sharia law in Texas. As a Co-Sponsor of SB 531 and the House companion HB 562, I wholeheartedly agree no foreign law should supersede Texas law, Federal law, or our Constitution.
SB 531 was sent to the House Calendars Committee in a form which caused me concern. Those concerns were based on how the bill changed family law. Texas families are currently afforded the ability to enter into different agreements according to the principles of their faith, including custody agreements and marital agreements. SB 531 could have undermined these agreements, which are entered into freely and legally.
SB 531 referred to “good morals or natural justice.” While the bill attempted to define these terms, they remained poorly defined and would have been left wide open to interpretation. I believe this would have cost Texan’s their hard earned money in legal fees while lawyers wrangled over the meaning of SB 531.
Read the rest of Rep. Debbie Riddle’s newsletter Newsletter on Sharia (May 26 2015)
Then yesterday May 30th ACT! For America posted a series of questions on their blog they believe not only Rep. Debbie Riddle should answer, but also Rep. Patricia Harless.
Among them are:
Why is it at the eleventh hour (literally), GOP Reps. Riddle and Harless adopted reasoning adversarial to our Lieutenant Governor, House Judiciary and Senate State Affairs committees, ten Governors, ten Lieutenant Governors, ten State Chambers and ten House Chambers of ten sister states. What expertise do they suddenly now possess that guide their new found reasoning?”
Why did she choose the Calendars Committee as a forum to suddenly dispute the wording of a Bill she had previously agreed to? Surely the appropriate forum for that type of discussion is either from the Floor of the House or in a private exchange with the Bill sponsor to clarify and if necessary craft an Amendment from the Floor to adopt whatever changes are needed. The ethical implications of killing bills from the Calendars Committee based on an unqualified interpretation of a Bill’s phrasing are quite horrific to contemplate.
There are many Bills that are changed by subsequent Legislative sessions if found be flawed. Why was her solution to kill her own Bill at the last minute and not that?
ACT! For America concludes their post with:
We press on and part of that process is to make Legislators account for their actions to Texans, and that those same Legislators be held accountable for their votes should they not reflect the wishes of the citizens who elected them.
Rep Riddle & Rep. Harless should be no different.
Why at the eleventh hour indeed.
Here’s what happens when you change lanes at the last minute:
Indeed! Riddle also weakly defended her immigration enforcement bills a couple sessions back. An activist at the capitol every day with access to a Judicial Watch attorney tried to get her to work on the language a bit more to pass judicial muster..they were not welcomed at her office. She is running a front. Needs to go!
The reality is that this ill-considered statute would have the effect of forbidding Americans the right to voluntarily submit themselves to bodies that reach mutually agreeable resolutions to disputes consistent with their religious faith. Not only would the voluntary submission of disputes to Islamic tribunals be banned, but so would the use of Christian mediation services based upon Biblical principles or Jewish rabbinical courts. For that matter, it is questionable whether or not the Catholic Church could continue to operate marriage tribunals under ALAC. Now it is your right to hate Islam so much that you want to try to undermine the First Amemdment, but I applaud those cooler heads who prefer to keep our freedoms intact instead.
Rhymes With Right – Whatever your feelings on ALAC legislation (and its okay that we disagree with each other on that point), the issue at hand is the behavior of elected officials that say one thing to get elected, feign support of a cause to gain more legislative gravitas , then suddenly and inappropriately kill that very same legislation at the final hour for no apparent good reason only to then provide transparent hogwash as answers when citizens try to hold them accountable for their actions.
The fact that in this instance legislation you disagreed with was killed in such a manner should not cloud your opinion that this was good or beneficial to our legislative process.
Similarly our newsletters that Yvonne writes about above do not extoll the virtues of ALAC,(as that debate – like it or not – had already been settled by half of our Legislature as well las 10 other States) but rather focused on the methods by which Rep Riddle (ab)used her position in the Calendars Committee to kill a bill she was suddenly unsure about.
No one expects Legislators to be experts on every Bill they have responsibility for. Rep Riddle is not an attorney – and readily admits as such – so she was unqualified to assess the wording in SB531 she suddenly did not understand. That is why experts are used to guide, craft Bill language, provide public testimony at Committee hearings, get voted on by assigned Committees etc etc etc
By the time SB531 reached Rep Riddle’s desk on the Calendars Committee it had already been through all of this twice (once in the Senate and once as an identical House Bill where she herself cleared it only a matter of days beforehand)
The reasoning by which she can arbitrarily shut down any Bill’s progress because she was suddenly confused by the same language approved of many times before needs to be questioned. This time it was SB531 – next time she, or any other Committee member may use the same reading for a Bill you support.
The merits of ALAC we can debate at another time in the meantime I trust you would agree that
the accountability of elected officials to the citizens who elect them should not be a Bill specific issue
SW
Better that a rep kill a bill they do not understand, than risk having poorly drafted legislation become law. I”m sorry, but if I can’t understand the bill, it’s not clear enough to become law. And the fact is that much of the legislation like ALAC is stupid, with no reason to exist, other than the hatred and bigotry of one set of beliefs for another, different set of beliefs.
Ross
You are missing the point. Rep Riddle was part of the vetting process that had already cleared the wording she suddenly found fault with. There is nothing wrong with having that concern, but to kill a bill she was sponsoring is highly unusual. .She did not disagree with the wording and was not confused by it when she sponsored the two bills, nor did she have any concerns when she cleared it the first time from the Calendars committee.. Those facts indicate she found nothing wrong yet at a critical time mysteriously listend to whispers not facts. Had she raised objections as to meaning of the wording of the bill she was sponsoring at any time during the vetting process – fair enough but she didnt. She chose an inappropriate procedural manoever to kil a bill.
Finally just because it hapenned to an ALAC bill doesnt mean this was about ALAC.
Rep Riddle’s actions show that anyone opposed to any bill can whisper unfounded concerns into a legislators ear to kill a bill after clearing wll of the vetting procedures in place.
Is that the process we really want ?
I would think that the her constituents would be tired of her dog and pony show. Four years ago, she made a big production out of being the first representative to file and immigration bill. The bills were nothing but fluff and not worth the paper they were written on. I would hope that by now her constituents have had enough and find someone competent to represent them.