Texas Gov. Abbott secretly wanted bathroom bill killed, key House member says

AUSTIN — During the bitter fight over the so-called bathroom bill last year, Gov. Greg Abbott sent word to a key Texas House leader that he wanted the legislation killed, a report released Tuesday says.

The lawmaker, Republican state Rep. Byron Cook of Corsicana, said he was later caught off guard when Abbott endorsed the controversial legislation and included it among items for lawmakers to pass in a special session last summer.

"His actions surprised many because the governor's top aides had made it clear, to me and others, during the regular legislative session that the governor did not want that bill on his desk," said Cook, who chaired a special committee that examined the effect the bathroom bill and other measures had on the state's competitive posture.

The governor's office declined to comment.

The committee, appointed by House Speaker Joe Straus, said in its report that the bathroom bill threatened to undermine Texas’ reputation as one of the top states for business development and diverted lawmakers’ attention from pressing issues such as education and improvements to highways and public facilities.

“When policymakers and state leaders contemplate or work to advance policies that could harm the state’s economy, Texas businesses should collectively challenge and vehemently resist those initiatives,” the committee said in a report released Tuesday.

“If the business community does not have the courage to defy and work against counterproductive legislation because of fear of retribution, this state is at risk,” the committee added.

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Straus, a San Antonio Republican who will retire after the November elections, is credited with derailing the measure promoted by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to restrict the restroom options of transgender people. Patrick, a socially conservative Republican who runs the Texas Senate, said the measure was needed to protect women and children.

The special committee heard testimony from more than 40 leaders from the business, law enforcement and academic communities before releasing its report.

"Businesses ultimately became involved in the fight against the divisive and pointless legislation known as the 'bathroom bill' when the governor called lawmakers back for a special session and made it a top priority," Cook said.

The committee's findings were not surprising, given that Cook, who also will retire this year, chaired the permanent House committee that bottled up the bathroom bill during both the regular session of the 2017 Legislature and the monthlong special session that followed it.

Many of the witnesses, including Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and longtime Texas business and political leader Tom Luce, had publicly urged the defeat of the bathroom bill when lawmakers were wrestling with the matter through much of the legislative session.

The bill, backed by several social conservative organizations such as Texas Values and a consortium of protestant church leaders, was among the topics that dominated the agenda in Austin. As hard as Patrick, a Houston Republican who launched his political career from his base as a conservative talk radio host, pushed for the measure, Straus and his lieutenants pushed back.

The committee said the effort was flawed from the start and suggested the bathroom bill was promoted less for safety concerns and more to make a political point.

The version of the bill that emerged from the Senate addressed only restroom and locker room use in government buildings. If the public was at risk without such a measure, the committee report asked, why were the users of only government-operated private spaces protected?

Still, efforts to kill the bill faced a strong headwind. The GOP-dominated Senate followed Patrick’s lead and passed it twice: Once in the regular session and again in the special. Abbott at first declined to take sides publicly, but late in the regular session he moved toward Patrick’s position.

When the measure died in the House as the regular session ended, Abbott added it to the special session’s to-do list.

GOP-friendly organizations like the Texas Association of Business and big-city police chiefs sought to give moderate Republicans cover by calling the measure unnecessary and discriminatory. But had the measure come to the House floor, it would have surely passed because more than 80 of the 150 House members had signed on as cosponsors.

Democratic lawmakers were nearly unanimous in their opposition. State Sen. Eddie Lucio of Brownsville was the only member of his party in the Legislature to publicly support it.

The bathroom bill’s defeat was considered a factor when hard-core House conservatives moved against Straus before the speaker decided not to seek re-election.

The other members of the special committee are Republicans Angie Chen Button of the Dallas area, Charlie Geren of Fort Worth and Sarah Davis of Houston, and Democrats Joe Moody of El Paso, Rene Oliveira of Brownsville and Senfronia Thompson of Houston.

Its recommendations to protect and enhance Texas’ economic competitiveness include making sure state funding for public education increases with the cost of living and with the growth of enrollment, improving the state’s infrastructure and making sure government-backed incentives to promote business have the intended effect.

John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at John.Moritz@caller.com and follow him on Twitter @JohnnieMo.