#TXLEGE: Straus uses Uber bill floor debate to send a message

"Perversity is in his heart,
He devises evil continually,
He sows discord."
Proverbs 6:14

The House just voted out their version of the Uber bill.  We said our piece on it yesterday; we're glad it passed.  But notice something interesting about the floor debate:

19 amendments...with 12 by Democrats?!?

At 10 minutes per amendment, that's 190 minutes.  That's more than three hours.  And several of the amendments took closer to 20.

All afternoon long, we've been wondering why the Democrats were spending so much time on this bill.  This is even more true once you consider that the House is also holding floor debate today on a major school finance bill (Note: We don't want to get sidetracked on school finance, but that bill is a whole separate hot mess).  Considering that most of the Democrat amendments came from the Austin delegation, we assumed they were attempting to protect the city and the broader local government mafia.

Making matters weirder, the debate morphed into a discussion of "discrimination."

Then we remembered a bill that's up in the House state affairs committee after today's floor session:

HB 2899       Simmons | et al.        
Relating to the regulation of discrimination by political subdivisions.

That's the House equivalent of the privacy act.

Bingo.

They're debating two major bills on the floor today, both of which are accompanied by lots of amendments.  And they're taking their sweet time with those amendments.  They're doing this to delay the start of tonight's state affairs hearing.

Consider further that Austin Democrat Celia Israel offered five of those amendments...and wasn't Celia Israel also the one who introduced the phrase "Operation Slowdown" in the first place?!?

This isn't about ridesharing, it's about telegraphing what they're going to do with the privacy act.

And we doubt they get off the floor before 9 pm tonight...which means the hearing begins around 10...and there are 10 total bills being heard.

Bottom Line: Tonight is going to be a late night, and that late night was pre-planned.