This week, action heated up in the Capitol across a range of issues. Texas Impact focused especially on hearings related to the electric grid; vouchers; and addressing gun violence.
We are proud of the members of our Ending Gun Violence issue team who provided public testimony in Tuesday’s hearing of the House Select Committee on Community Safety. Follow the links for testimony from Rev. Rob Mueller, Rev. Sam Brannon, and Rev. Stephen Sanders.
On Wednesday, the Senate Education Committee took several hours of testimony on legislation relating to establishing school vouchers, which would take funding away from public schools to subsidize religious and other private education for a few families at taxpayer expense. Dr. Charles Luke and Rev. Ginny Brown-Daniel were among many Texans of diverse perspectives testifying in opposition to vouchers.
Many other LegeTV clips of important legislative moments this week are posted on our YouTube channel, including this astonishing clip of Sen. Rolando Gutierrez appealing the chair’s ruling during a Senate floor action.
We were disappointed to see the anti-gender affirming care bill SB 14 reported favorably from the Senate State Affairs Committee. The House companion, HB 1686, will be heard in the House Public Health Committee on Monday. On March 20, the Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, issued a strong statement opposing such legislation, saying, “While members of our church hold various convictions regarding gender, the teaching of our church supports legislation and policies to protect every person’s human dignity and civil rights.”