Stickland and friends sulk, then destroy others’ work
Republican state Rep. Jonathan Stickland of Bedford clearly isn’t getting along with some of his colleagues in the Texas House of Representatives.
More accurately, he doesn’t get along with House leaders, especially Speaker Joe Straus of San Antonio.
Thursday night, Stickland let the entire House know how he felt — and he did it at the top of his lungs.
Stickland is part of a small House group calling itself the Freedom Caucus, and with his help Thursday and Friday they went on a rampage, indiscriminately killing scores of bills with parliamentary maneuvers.
Their scorched-earth march was partly to protest lack of progress on bills to further restrict abortion. But even more, it was to decry Straus.
Rep. Matt Shaheen, R-Plano, complained at a hastily called news conference Thursday that under Straus and his leadership team, “if your voting record is too conservative, you will not be allowed to pass legislation.”
Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, another Freedom Caucus member, sounded off, too.
“The fact that we stand at the back [microphone of the House Chamber] to hold leadership accountable for the rules, and they get frustrated and they start killing our legislation is absolutely absurd,” Tinderholt said, according to The Texas Tribune.
But it was Stickland who expressed himself most angrily.
He took to the microphone Thursday night to complain about a vote to cut off debate on a bill that had moved rapidly through the vetting process to floor debate.
“I am sick and tired of the rules only mattering when it keeps the minority members of this House, whatever the issue is, in line,” Stickland said. “When this leadership of this House decides that they want to do something, it happens.”
Isn’t that how legislatures work? Leadership leads?
“Here again, we have another example of a group of people getting together and deciding that we want a bill,” he said, getting louder and louder. “And all of a sudden your ability to offer an amendment, talk against the bill, ask questions, are all silenced.”
By then he was screaming, “It’s disgusting. It’s disgusting. And one of these days, it’s going to happen to something that you care about.”
Frustration near the end of a legislative session is understandable. Killing off more than 100 of your fellow legislators’ bills is just petulant.
This story was originally published May 12, 2017 at 8:36 PM with the headline "Stickland and friends sulk, then destroy others’ work."