AUSTIN — A bill that would have made it harder for Texas cities and counties to relocate decades-old historic and Confederate monuments died this week.

Senate Bill 1663 passed the Senate after hours of debate, but was never scheduled for a vote on the House floor. The legislation also would have blocked San Antonio from moving the Cenotaph in Alamo Plaza, meaning the state can likely move forward with plans to relocate the monument honoring Alamo defenders.

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Sen. Brandon Creighton, a Conroe Republican who sponsored the bill, said he hopes the measure will still have an affect.

“Thousands of bills will not be passed this session, however it is my hope that the support shown for SB 1663 will discourage deleting Texas history out of haste, and lead to local governments taking a more thoughtful, transparent and collaborative process when considering historical monuments,” he said in a statement.

Efforts to remove Confederate imagery in Texas and nationwide gained momentum after a woman was killed during racially charged protests in Charlottesville over a statue of Robert E. Lee.

Houston renamed seven schools and a street, though two controversial Houston monuments still remain: the Spirit of the Confederacy statue in Sam Houston Park and a monument commemorating Dick Dowling in Hermann Park.

In San Antonio, a Confederate statue in Travis Park was taken down in 2017 and Lee High School was renamed.

This year, the state’s preservation board, headed by Abbott, voted to remove a Confederate plaque in the Capitol that long angered critics for its inaccurate claim that slavery wasn’t an underlying cause of the Civil War.

This is a developing story; check back for updates.