Legislative Update for the week ending February 22

Legislative Update for the week ending February 15

Legislative Update: Valentine's Day Edition

Legislative Update for the week ending February 8

Legislative update for the week ending February 1

Legislative Update for the week ending January 25, 2013

SB 237: Employment Non-Discrimination

Sen. Leticia Van de Putte

Senate Bill 237 by Sen. Leticia Van de Putte (D-San Antonio) would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity and expression. Under current law it is illegal in Texas to discriminate in employment based on a person’s race, religion, gender, national origin, age, or disability. It remains legal to discriminate based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. There is no federal law prohibiting employment discrimination against the LGBT community (although, according to  a 2011 poll by the Center for American Progress, 9 out of 10 American voters erroneously believe that federal law does provide LGBT people employment protections).

This is the first time that a bill to prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression has been filed in the Senate.

SB 237 is identical to HB 238 by Rep. Mike Villarreal (D - San Antonio).

Why file the same exact bill twice, one in the House and once in the Senate?

Sets of identical, or nearly identical, bills filed in both the House and Senate are called "companions." Bills are filed in these sets because of a quirk in the way legislation is passed in the Texas legislature. The Texas Constitution requires that bills be "read" on three separate days in both the House and Senate before they become law. That doesn't mean that the whole bill is read, it just means that the bill is mentioned and that some action is taken.

So if a bill is introduced in the House (that means it starts with "HB" (for "House Bill")) its first "reading" is when the bill is sent to one of several dozen House committees for consideration. If the committee chooses to consider the bill they will hold a public hearing (when anybody can walk off the street and tell the committee what they think of the bill) and then, if they think the bill is a good idea, the committee can vote to "report favorably" on the bill, basically recommend that the entire House should vote on it. Bills that are reported favorably are then sent to one of several "calendar" committees that schedule the bill for its second "reading."

The legislature only meets for 140 days, and this process can take one to three months.