Good morning!

Here is the Texas Minute for Wednesday, May 3, 2023.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

As Leftist Mob Disrupts House, Chamber Postpones Debate on Gender Mutilation

• Legislation banning the gender mutilation and sterilization of children was postponed yesterday after Democrats raised a procedural "point of order" regarding a typo in an accompanying legislative report. Syndie Henry has the story from the Capitol.
        
• But news of the postponement was overshadowed by an unruly mob of leftist demonstrators disrupting the House proceedings. Transsexual activists wanting to mutilate children began loudly chanting, with one man – wearing women's clothing – exposing himself to lawmakers.
       
• House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) ordered Texas DPS troopers to clear the gallery of all onlookers.
      
• At issue is legislation that would protect children from being chemically castrated by puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, or subjected to mutilative surgeries to “transition” their physical appearance. The measure, Senate Bill 14, was authored by State Sen. Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels) and passed out of her chamber on April 4.
      
• To address the procedural problems, the measure was sent back to the House Committee on Public Health. The House Republican leadership team said they will have SB 14 back on the chamber's floor for debate later this week.

House Delays Vote on New Corporate Welfare Program

• Facing opposition from conservatives, the Texas House postponed debate on a controversial corporate welfare program.
      

• Corporate welfare refers to a longtime practice where state and local officials make “economic incentive” deals with handpicked businesses at the expense of taxpayers.
      

• The latest effort was legislation authored by State Rep. Four Price (R–Amarillo) that would establish the Texas Multimedia Production Program and provide taxpayer-funded subsidies to the entertainment industry. This would provide Hollywood production companies with a second bite at funding from taxpayers, in addition to the Moving Image Industry Incentive Program.
       

• According to an analysis by the Texas House, nearly $1 billion would be spent on the program – with $137 million coming directly from the Property Tax Relief Fund.
      

• Yes, you read that correctly. Does Hollywood really need Texans' property tax relief money more than Texans do?
      

• The legislation was supposed to be debated earlier this week but has been delayed until Monday, May 8.

House Stalls Out Election Security Legislation

• Texas grassroots advocates are concerned that “reluctant” Republican lawmakers in the state House are preventing their priority election integrity legislation from advancing in time to reach the governor’s desk. Erin Anderson has the details.

      

• With four weeks remaining in the 20-week regular legislative session, the state Senate has passed more than a dozen Texas GOP priority measures to protect elections, yet the Texas House has passed just one.

      
• “There is a very small contingent of people within the party (yes, Republicans) who do not want these bills to see the light of day,” explained Jill Glover, head of the Republican Party of Texas Legislative Priorities Committee, in a recent update on the status of the party’s priority bills.
      
• The lone House-passed measure simply undoes a change made by the Legislature two years ago that weakened the state’s election laws.
      
• Stalled out in the House are a variety of measures addressing security concerns that have come to light through election mismanagement issues uncovered in Harris County and elsewhere.

Chicago's Lame-Duck Mayor Upset By Flood Of Illegal Aliens

• While Texans suffer the consequences of open border policies pushed by Democrats, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said her city is struggling to manage just 8,000 illegal aliens. Katy Marshall has the story.

      
• Lightfoot condemned Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for busing illegal aliens into Chicago and called for him to stop the program.
   
• Abbott started busing illegal aliens to the country’s interior last year—costing taxpayers around $1,400 per rider. So far, the program has transported more than 15,000 illegal aliens to cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia, D.C., and New York City.
      

• Lightfoot fretted that Abbott sent the illegal aliens with no “resources of their own” and left Chicago officials to provide them with water, food, and medical services.
      

• "Yeah... Welcome to the party, Lori!" – Every Single Texan
       

• “As the mayor of a self-declared sanctuary city, it is ironic to hear you complain about Chicago’s struggle to deal with a few thousand illegal immigrants, which is a fraction of the record-high numbers we deal with in Texas on a regular basis,” responded Gov. Abbott. “Texas border towns like Eagle Pass, Brownsville, and Laredo—and even bigger cities like El Paso—cannot handle the flood of illegal immigrants rushing across our southern border.”

More Problems In Boerne

• Last month, Boerne ISD's superintendent came under fire for refusing to address how an LGBT activist was able to get on campus and lecture students. Now, reports Soli Rice, he is again giving parents the cold shoulder on obscene books found in school libraries.

      
• The book “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” by Jesse Andrews is listed in the high school library catalog as “Young Adult Realistic Fiction.” More than 300 various profanities are scattered throughout the book, with hundreds of sentences explicitly about sex. Several pages are composed of little more than profanities, sexual innuendo, and sexually explicit passages.
      
• The superintendent did not respond to Texas Scorecard’s request for comment.

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