The legislative session ends in about three weeks, and there is an avalanche of potential legislation yet to be passed by lawmakers.
A measure just passed by the Senate exposes anyone who manufactures, distributes, mails, prescribes or provides an abortion- inducing drug to lawsuits of up to $100,000, The Texas Tribune reports. It also expands the wrongful death statute to encourage family members, like men who believe their partner had an abortion, to sue up to six years after the event.
Then there’s a bill passed in the Senate soon to be taken up in the House that would allow Texas judges to deny bail to certain criminal defendants. This would upend the old standard, which typically guaranteed the right to pretrial release, including to those charged with capital murder.
And then there’s a bill to ban land sales in Texas to people from countries listed on a U.S. Threat assessment list. Right now, that would include a ban on residents of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from buying Texas land.
Blaise Gainey, who covers state politics for The Texas Newsroom, said the Republicans’ priority bail reform bill looks likely to pass and get signed by Gov. Greg Abbott this session. The Senate has already passed its version, and it is making progress in the House.
“The bill would allow judges to deny bail to people who are accused of certain crimes. Right now, capital murder is already on that list, but this would add in aggravated kidnapping, robbery, or assault with a weapon in murder,” he said. “The reason they want this is because sometimes when people are released from jail, they then go and commit further crimes before they’ve even gotten sentenced for the first crime or at least went to court on the first crime that they were released on. Republicans have seen this as a big issue.”
Republican lawmakers need 100 votes in the House to get the bill passed, which means they need about 12 or 14 Democrats to vote with them on the issue, Gainey said.
“There are some Democrats who are totally fine with it, but the progressive Democrats, as some call them, are against it because in America, we’re used to being able to be innocent until proven guilty,” he said. “So it just is a different standard. It’s a different thought to then say, no, if it’s this certain crime, you are sort of just held captive until your trial date and until the case is settled.”
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The Texas House also recently passed Senate Bill 17, which would ban land sales to people from certain countries.
“The idea behind it is that they don’t want those countries purchasing a lot of land here in the United States,” Gainey said. “Maybe they see it as a threat … [since] these countries are already on the national security threat assessment list.”
Gainey said the bill has been amended to exempt people who are naturalized citizens in America but are from those countries.
Some opponents to the bill said it looks like it was targeting people from Asia for racial or xenophobic reasons. Meanwhile, proponents have expressed concerns that people who haven’t even set foot in the U.S. are purchasing from China and from Russia, which could mean potentially Iran and North Korea are making purchases by proxy.
“I do think it’s going to make it to the governor’s desk.” Gainey said. “It seems like states are really wary of what’s going on, [with concerns about people] buying land near military bases. I think that always raises an eye. But when it comes from a country that’s on this list, I think it even clearly raises more eyes.”
