Latest news with #HB3817
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Thousands of Texas House bills ‘die' at key midnight deadline
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — At 12 a.m. Friday, thousands of bills in the Texas House of Representatives will meet their end. As of 5 p.m. Thursday, the House passed 1,067 bills, with each passing three rounds of voting. House representatives filed 5,852 bills this session, which puts the House's 'death toll' at around 81.7% of its bills. Some of the bills that could die at midnight include: HB 1375, which would have prohibited books with certain content HB 1449, which would have eased food truck permitting requirements HB 3817, which would have created a criminal offense targeting transgender people HB 5151, which would have increased air quality permitting requirements for rock crushing plants Texas House passes budget bill, defunds lottery KXAN reported on several House bills that already passed in the chamber this session, including ones to legalize fentanyl test strips, end STAAR testing, ban minors from social media, and create education savings accounts. TxLege data: How long do sessions last and how many bills are typically passed? The next critical deadline during the 89th Legislative Session is May 24, the last day that the House can advance Senate bills out of its committees. As of 5 p.m. Thursday, the House received 971 bills from the Senate. House committees already passed 389 of those bills to the House floor for consideration. What are the Texas Legislature's session deadlines? So far, state legislators have sent only 173 bills to the governor, just 1.9% of the 8,958 bills filed this session. KXAN reported in 2023 that the 88th Legislative Session sent 1,246 bills to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk. He signed 1,038 of those bills outright. Abbott vetoed 76 bills in 2023, which set a new personal record across the governor's four prior legislative sessions while in office. The legislative session ends June 2. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
If passed, Texas bill could charge transgender people with 'gender identity fraud'
A bill proposed in the Texas legislature could charge transgender Texans with a state felony if they commit what proponents call 'gender identity fraud.' Republican state Rep. Tom Oliverson, who represents a part of Houston in District 130, introduced House Bill 3817. If passed, it would amend the Texas Penal Code to add a new form of fraud related to gender identity. According to the bill, a person would commit "gender identity fraud" if they "knowingly make a false or misleading verbal or written statement to a governmental entity or the person's employer by identifying the person's biological sex as the opposite of the biological sex assigned to the person at birth." The penalty if someone were to commit "gender identity fraud" would be a state felony, which could land a person in jail for up to two years and a $10,000 fine. The bill is not expected to pass, according to the Texas Legislature tracker, as it has no co-sponsors and has not moved to any committees. Oliverson did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment on Monday. HB 3817, if passed, would essentially ban transgender people in the state from sharing their gender identity with employers, but could also apply to interactions with police or applications for government benefits. This latest proposed bill is not the only anti-transgender policy in the state. Last month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into the Hutto school district for allegedly violating a 2021 state law that bans students from competing in sports teams that don't align with their sex assigned at birth. Hutto joins a growing list of Texas schools to undergo such an investigation. Paxton has also issued an opinion stating that public school students taking steroids as part of gender-affirming care would no longer be allowed to participate in University Interscholastic League (UIL) sports. Students suspected of taking steroids for such purpose would be barred from participating in athletic competitions until an investigation is concluded. People are also reading: Employee refused to remove pronouns from email signature. A Texas agency fired him for it. In August 2024, the Texas Department of Public Safety ordered its employees to stop allowing transgender people to change their gender on their driver's licenses and state IDs. 'The Department of Public Safety has a responsibility, as stated in its own name, to keep all Texans safe. This policy does the opposite,' the ACLU said of the change. 'Not having accurate driver's licenses jeopardizes trans people's health and safety — by potentially outing us and exposing us to discrimination, harassment, and violence.' Then less than a month later, the state stopped allowing people to change the sex listed on their birth certificates, according to the Texas Tribune. With the 89th Texas Legislative Session underway since early January, almost 100 anti-trans bills have been filed so far, according to the Trans Legislation Tracker. The number has already surpassed the 69 anti-trans bills filed during the last legislative session in 2023. Oliverson himself has been a key sponsor of another anti-trans bill in the Texas legislature before. During the 2023 legislative session, he was a sponsor of Senate Bill 14, which banned gender-affirming care in the state and was upheld by the state Supreme Court. — USA TODAY contributed to this report. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas anti-trans bill would charge people with 'gender identity fraud'
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Texas bill could charge transgender people with ‘gender identity fraud', if passed
AUSTIN (KXAN) — A bill filed in the Texas House of Representatives this week threatens to charge transgender Texans with a crime for identifying with a gender that differs from their sex assigned at birth. HB 3817 would make it a state jail felony for a person to 'identify' to a state agency or private employer their 'biological sex as the opposite of the biological sex assigned to the person at birth.' Texas 'not for freedom': House bill could ban gender-affirming care for transgender adults Gwen Howerton, an audience producer with Houston-based publication Chron, reported about the bill on Wednesday. In a Friday conversation with KXAN Anchor Will DuPree, she said that transgender rights advocates she spoke to called the bill 'alarming.' She noted that the bill is unlikely to pass. '[It] is really alarming when we look at not just the scope of what this bill is saying, but when we talk about the treatment of transgender individuals in prisons,' Howerton said. 'As far as actual passage, I would say that the likelihood of it is really low.' She said that the purpose of these bills may not be to actually pass, but to instead shift the conversation further towards anti-trans views. 'The Overton Window's moved so much on trans rights and legislation impacting trans people that we're seeing bills that a couple of years ago were dead-on-arrival are now coming back, and actually, advocates are saying are more dangerous now,' Howerton said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
