Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives talks about the prospects for anti-LGBTQ bills, gun laws and casinos

Austin, Texas. Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan said Thursday that a select committee he formed in 2021 will consider a range of social issues that conservatives are pushing in this legislative session.

During a media briefing at the Capitol, Republican Beaumont was asked if he had any interest this session in GOP legislation targeting LGBT Texans, specifically the proposed ban on gender-affirming care for transgender children.

“This will be part of a much larger problem,” Phelan said. “For this particular reason, I have created a special committee on youth health and safety that deals with all these issues, whether it is an issue you are covering or issues in the classroom.”

Phelan said there are “some – very select, I think – school districts” that are “completely inappropriate to intervene between parent-child discussions.” He noted that he had a first grader, “and if he comes home and talks to me about sexuality in any form or fashion, I’ll be at this school in a few minutes.”

His comments showed some solidarity with those advocating a Florida-style ban on gender identity and sexuality classes in the classroom at the elementary school level. One bill filed in Texas will cover a high school. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who chairs the Senate, said he wants to pass such legislation, which critics warn could further marginalize LGBTQ students and their families and expose teachers to potential legal threats.

Phelan formed a select committee in September 2021, and at the time his office said the goal is to “better coordinate mental health, education, juvenile justice, and family and protective services for Texas youth,” especially in the wake of COVID -nineteen. pandemic. He expanded the committee after last year’s Uvalde massacre and tasked it with investigating school shootings. The chair of the commission is Rep. J. M. Lozano, R-Kingsville, and the vice chair is Rep. Ann Johnson, R-Houston, who is a lesbian.

Phelan said he also wants to focus on the impact of social media on children. After being re-elected speaker on Tuesday, he delivered a speech in which he said big tech companies are “booty.”[ing] on the insecurity of children, making them vulnerable to exploitation, sexualization and indoctrination.”

Phelan has a complicated history with LGBTQ issues. In 2019, he said he had “ended the talk of attacking the gay community”, but in his first year as speaker, he allowed a controversial bill to be passed to limit the participation of transgender students in high school athletics.

However, Phelan refrained from passing legislation banning gender-affirming childcare despite strong pressure from his right. On Thursday, he did not specifically address the proposal, except to say that it was one of the issues that the special committee would consider.

Here are a few other topics that Phelan touched on at Thursday’s briefing:

Democratic committee chairs

A day after the close of a long-awaited bid to eliminate Democratic committee chairs in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, Phelan defended the practice as a “long tradition” that makes Texas exceptional. He said that so many people move to Texas because “The Texas Legislature, especially the Texas House of Representatives, keeps our promises” to voters.

Phelan reaffirmed his desire to revive Chapter 313, the corporate tax credit program that lawmakers allowed to expire last year. He said the decision was “a bit short-sighted” and emboldened neighboring states that have their own tax breaks.

“We may have a new program for this session,” Phelan said. “We can have all this oversight and transparency and accountability and hopefully move forward so we can compete with other states.”

Phelan said there would be “much more debate” in the House of Representatives about the failed law enforcement response to the Uvalda massacre. He suggested that the House committee investigating the Uvalde shooting update its report “in the coming days or weeks.” This report was first released in July and mentioned “systemic failures” in law enforcement responses. Hundreds of officers who arrived at the school, including those from the Texas Department of Public Safety, did not meet with the shooter for more than an hour after the initial reports of gunshots.

Regarding the fate of DPS Director Steve McCraw, Phelan said that McCraw “serves to please the governor, and so it’s the governor’s decision.” But Phelan said McCraw was “open” with the House Investigation Committee “and we think he will be just as open at the next meeting.”

Last week, Phelan was in Uvalda and visited the families of the victims. The city’s state representative, Democrat Tracy King, alluded to this in a speech Tuesday endorsing Phelan’s nomination for speaker.

Phelan said Thursday that King will have a bill in this session to raise the age for purchasing assault weapons, a priority for some Uvalde families. Phelan said he had “the deepest respect” for King, but said – as he always did – that he did not believe the House of Representatives had the votes to pass such a bill, even repealing the constitutional issues that Gov. Greg Abbott had cited.

“[Those issues] will not interfere with the discussion and discussion of the bill,” Phelan said. “I just know, given that I can count the votes, and I told the families in Uvalde very frankly: “I don’t want to mislead you. I just want to tell you that this is where the votes in the Texas House are.”

Texas gambling expansion advocates are gearing up for a second push this session after seeing their proposals fail in 2021. Phelan reiterated that he has no problem with their case, noting that he lives “a stone’s throw away” from a casino in his area, which borders Louisiana. .

However, he went on to stress that he didn’t want to see a situation in Texas where people “walk into every convenience store and see 15 … slot machines.”

“I want to see high-quality, tourist destination-style casinos that create jobs and improve the lifestyle of these communities,” he said, adding that he thinks “the average voter will approve” of it “these days.”

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune on

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