GOP prepares to take control
Posted on 11/13/2002 6:11:31 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
GOP prepares to take control
State lawmakers file bills on lawsuit limits, abortion, prayer
11/13/2002
AUSTIN - Republican state lawmakers dusted off their long-stymied agendas on lawsuit limits, abortion and school prayer and presented them with revitalized hope on Tuesday, the first day bills could be filed for the session that begins Jan. 14.
GOP legislators, who now control the House and Senate for the first time in 130 years, showed their exuberance by ensuring that some of the first bills filed were those that have for years been left languishing in committee without a chance of passage.
"These people have always been associated with these topics, it just means they're more optimistic they're going to get a fair hearing and full consideration on them," said Rep. Ken Marchant, R-Coppell, who is chairman of the Republican Caucus.
The bills include a measure that would limit jury awards in medical malpractice cases to $250,000 in non-economic damages. Non-economic damages include disfigurement, pain and suffering, and mental anguish.
 Clerk Deidra Garcia records bills filed on Tuesday, the first day for legislators to submit bills for the coming session. (AP) |
Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, said the bill was needed to keep doctors practicing in Texas, where premium rates rose 20 percent last year. She said legal claims are costing the health care industry $1 million a day.
The bill would have bipartisan backing, Ms. Nelson predicted. "My goal is to ensure that patients are not only safe, but have access to the quality health care they need," she said.
Consumer groups and lawyers said the legislation would punish victims of bad medicine and protect insurance companies and health care providers that don't have to promise lower premiums or address quality-of-care issues.
"We're going to fight it until the last dog dies," said Jack McGehee, president of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association.
Among other bills filed is one by Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, that would ban same-sex marriage or civil unions. It is the first time such a bill was pre-filed. Last session, it died in a House committee.
Rep. Frank Corte, R-San Antonio, submitted an "informed consent" abortion bill that would mandate that women seeking abortions must wait 24 hours and be presented with material including color pictures of fetal development. It would also ban abortion clinics within 1,500 feet of a church or school and mandate that all abortions after 16 weeks of pregnancy be performed in a hospital and not a clinic.
Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, R-Lampasas, also filed a bill that failed last session that would enhance civil and criminal penalties for injury to a pregnant woman.
Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, filed a bill that would require public schools to hold a minute of silence so that children could pray or meditate.
Caution urged
Cal Jillson, chairman of the political science department at Southern Methodist University, said the Republican leaders must be careful not to let their social agendas overshadow the pressing fiscal issues facing the state.
He said the first term for former President Bill Clinton started disastrously when he had to deal with gays in the military as one of his first acts.
"If you deal with the extreme of your agenda first, people will look at you and roll their eyes," Dr. Jillson said.
He said that with a $5 billion to $10 billion shortfall in the two-year budget, there are other issues that should dominate the early part of the session, and Republican leaders should push for their social agenda later.
"People want to know what you are going to do about education, the budget, health care and home insurance and then you can go off and worry about the hobby horse issues. Do the meat and potatoes first, and then you can think about dessert," Dr. Jillson said.
'Bulletproof'
Religious freedom, abortion rights and consumer groups said the first bills filed are likely to be just the first salvos in a long legislative session for them.
"I think they are so emboldened by their wins that they think they are bulletproof and that they can pass anything - and I'm not sure they can't," said Kae McLaughlin, executive director of the Texas Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League.
She said Mr. Corte's informed consent bill is disrespectful to women and will mean delays and greater costs.
She said many women must end pregnancies for serious health concerns, and that to force them to go through "biased counseling" would contribute to their grief.
'Not far off the mark'
Rep. Glen Maxey, D-Austin, who did not seek re-election this year, said this is the first time in more than a dozen years that he has seen such a socially conservative agenda laid out so starkly on the first day of prefiling.
"I think the conservatives are probably not far off the mark to think they have the votes and leadership on their side to move through all these things," said Mr. Maxey, who is the only openly gay man to serve as a legislator.
Regarding the ban on same-sex unions, he said that it will pass and that it's not worth the time and effort to fight it.
He said that instead, he fears there will be other battles - such as attempts to prohibit gays and lesbians from adopting children or serving as foster parents.
"I think you can make a strong public policy argument that those are not good ideas," Mr. Maxey said.
He said such measures are likely to be taken up, but times have changed, and so has the Legislature.
"When I walked in in 1987 as a lobbyist, I was told by legislators that they didn't have any gays and lesbians in their districts," Mr. Maxey recalled. "Now, no one would say such a thing.
"They know the folks in the hometown community who are the bankers, lawyers and teachers. They might not agree with it from a moral standpoint, but they accept it," he said.
Mr. Marchant said conservative themes will be revisited because the Republicans now have 88 of 150 House seats.
"These are these members' bills, and I can say I've been in no meeting where any agenda has been discussed," Mr. Marchant said.
He said that the rules of the House haven't changed and that members still need to get support of a majority of colleagues before a bill can be passed.
"It's always been that the bill had to have merit to get out of committee and to the House floor," he said. "I don't think it's going to be any different this time."
E-mail choppe@dallasnews.com
People say that way too much.
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