Key Texas House chairman calls bathroom bill a 'smoke screen' Measure sailing through Senate, but faces huge hurdles in House

Rep. Byron Cook, who chairs the House State Affairs Committee, said the bathroom debate in Austin is a distraction from a battle between rural and urban Texas. Rep. Byron Cook, who chairs the House State Affairs Committee, said the bathroom debate in Austin is a distraction from a battle between rural and urban Texas. Photo: Ralph Barrera, MBO Photo: Ralph Barrera, MBO Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Key Texas House chairman calls bathroom bill a 'smoke screen' 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

AUSTIN — A key House Republican who chairs the committee that will decide whether to advance Texas' controversial "bathroom bill" called the issue a distraction Wednesday.

"As the special session continues to unfold, I am disappointed that our great state is continuing to waste so much time over the 'bathroom debate,'" Rep. Byron Cook wrote on the Texas GOP Vote, a Republican website. "Especially since all the attention on this issue is smoke-screening a very serious threat facing rural Texas families, rural public schools, and even the economic survival of our state's rural communities."

Cook, a Republican from Corsicana, chairs the House State Affairs Committee which is expected to consider legislation that requires people use the bathroom that corresponds with the sex on his or her birth certificate in government and school buildings, which passed the Senate Tuesday.

Critics call the legislation discriminatory and an attack on transgender people by forcing them to use the rest room of the gender they no longer identify with. Several police chiefs came out against it this week. Advocates say the legislation is important to protect women's privacy and keep men out of the women's restrooms.

While Cook said he supports limiting bathroom use to a person's birth gender, school districts should set their own policies on which bathrooms transgender students should use. Said Cook:

"As for my position on the 'bathroom' bill, I support legislation that limits admittance (based on gender at birth) to multi-stall bathrooms and locker rooms in our schools and requires local schools districts to develop single-stall bathroom policies for its transgender students. Beyond clarifying this policy for our public schools, we already have strong laws in Texas against sexual predators. Therefore, I do not condone duplicitous grandstanding on this issue and/or discriminatory legislation; nor do I support laws that will adversely affect our state's economy."

The focus on which bathrooms people can use is distracting people from a "disingenuous" effort to lower property taxes and and a school choice bill that would "cripple funding" for rural public school districts, he said.

House leaders, including San Antonio Republican Speaker Joe Straus, is no fan of the bathroom bill and has sided with business leaders who say the legislation would hurt the Texas economy, which has already lost some $66 million through convention cancellations.

The House passed its own watered down version of the bathroom bill during the regular session, instructing schools to set policies about bathroom use. Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick from Houston was non-surplussed with that version, essentially saying the House's bill was weak sauce and demanding a that goes further to protect women.

Cook stopped short of saying exactly what he will do with the bill the Senate is expected to send over to the House, but hinted the Senate version isn't to his liking: "I do not condone duplicitous grandstanding on this issue and/or discriminatory legislation; nor do I support laws that will adversely affect our state's economy."

Andrea Zelinski writes about politics and education for the Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook. Send her tips at andrea.zelinski@chron.com.