House lawmakers failed to vote on a bill that would have barred libraries from receiving state funding if they hosted drag shows or drag queen story hours for minors.
Senate Bill 18, authored by State Sen. Bryan Hughes (R–Mineola), was placed near the end of the House calendar for Tuesday by the Calendars Committee but did not make it to the floor before midnight—the deadline for the House to consider Senate legislation.
“The failure of the Texas House to advance SB 18 is a gut punch to families across this state,” Brady Gray, Texas Family Project president, told Texas Scorecard. “While the Senate answered the call to stop taxpayer-funded drag events targeting children, House leadership chose delay and silence.”
“Despite overwhelming grassroots support, House leadership allowed the clock to run out on a bill that would have protected kids and held public institutions accountable. This wasn’t about process. It was about priorities—and clearly, protecting children didn’t make the cut,” Gray continued.
“Texas families will not forget this betrayal. And neither will we.”
The proposal would have prohibited the state from funding a library that “hosts an event at which a man presenting as a woman or a woman presenting as a man reads a book or a story to a minor for entertainment and the person being dressed as the opposite gender is a primary component of the entertainment.”
If a library violated the measure, the state and its political subdivisions could not provide any funding in the fiscal year following the offense.
This is the second successive session that this measure, a priority of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the Texas GOP, has passed the Texas Senate but failed to pass the Texas House.
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