Texas Speaker Bonnen Set to Kill Statue Protection Bill after Killing Constitutional Carry
John Griffing
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With 10 days left to spare, Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen has killed very moderate “monument protection” legislation, forbidding the popular measure from even being debated, and this comes after the Joe Straus-protege’ also killed constitutional carry, sources close to leadership report.
In doing this, the Texas House abandoned conventional transparency standards which make individual lawmakers more accountable to their constituents. For example, the minutes showing how individual members voted on the monuments’ legislation still are not available to the public.
When the Texas Committee on Calendars voted to kill SB 1663, substituted in the House for HB 583, the individual votes were not published, concealing Republican betrayals of their constituents — and such dishonest procedural “delays” are common practice when a speaker rams through his personal agenda in conflict with the majority of the electorate.
Consider the below screenshot of the State of Texas’ official bill registry, which shows that actions on HB 583 have not been updated since May 6, 2019, even though bill was killed early this morning:
And see the following “bill stages” snapshot:
The use of this practice is a clear attempt to protect the careers of the representatives responsible for killing good bills. These leadership appointees, in return, dutifully salute the personal political worldview of their “boss” (HINT: not the voter), Speaker Dennis Bonnen.
As we speak, the minutes remain unpublished.
The bill in question protected much more than subjectively “constroversial” Civil War memorials, and specifically, protected the universally-loved Alamo Cenotaph memorial from destruction, i.e. “relocation,” by political neophyte George P. Bush. We reported extensively on Bush’s ethical and legal abuse of power this morning on BLP’s home page. We’ve also regularly reported on Bush’s baldfaced attempt to tear down the vaunted 60-foot, 80-year-old Alamo Cenotaph (“empty tomb.”)
This is similar in form to the speaker killing constitutional carry legislation vis-a-vis the Second Amendment, putting Texas behind almost every other state in its protection of US Constitution’s right to “keep and bear arms,” which “shall not be infringed.” Bonnen infringed.
Although it passed a Senate committee, passed on the floor of the Senate, and passed out of the House tourism committee, the Calendars Committee decided it shouldn’t even be given a chance on the floor (since it would easily win passage.) By the way, it’s the second time the Calendars Committee killed HB 583.
Calendars Committee Vice Chairman Joe Moody, (D-El Pason) in an interview with the Dallas Morning News, defended the committee’s actions by exclaiming:
I don’t think it represented the best of what Texas has to offer. It has no place on the House floor.
Other major influencers, like Daniel Miller of the Texas Nationalist Movement, do not agree:
The Alamo Cenotaph, statues to Sam Houston, schools named after Travis, Bowie, Crockett, Lamar and even Thomas Jefferson are now in greater danger than before.
We have to fight them every single step of the way. (Emphasis Added)
Whatever your views on the issue, please contact the Texas Legislature’s main switchboard, and ask for Speaker Dennis Bonnen’s direct office line:
Home office: (979) 848-1770.
Austin office: (512) 463-0564.
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