A pro-union, anti-legislative watchdog bill passed out of the Senate yesterday – Kel Seliger’s SB 346.
The fact that six Senators voted against it is noteworthy, since the Senate prefers to project an air of harmony to the watching world. Most Senate bills are unanimous, a few contentiousness bills follow party lines, or are within one or two votes of unanimous. To give you an idea of things, Brian Birdwell, Ken Paxton, and Donna Campbell all voted against this bill.
What’s in the bill?
Well, the establishment has always lamented that donors to legislative watchdogs are just as protected by the Citizens United decision as the kinds of donors who enrich PACs like American Crossroads. The establishment hates being watched, so they don’t like watchdogs, and they want to bully watchdog donors.
This bill would make it so that 501c4 legislative watchdogs who also have a PAC must disclose their donors.
However, there is a big carve-out for labor unions. They get a pass. See, labor unions work with the establishment, centralizing money and power in capitol towns. That makes them allies, even to their so-called political “enemies” who work with the establishment.
Legislators on the wrong side of this issue have shown favoritism for unions over government accountability, shown contempt for free speech, and have voted for a bill that is unconstitutional. This is a vote. Rhetoric doesn’t change Texas. Their votes do. remeber that when they try to spin their way out of this vote, using words, soon.
Senator Birdwell has eloquently described the several ways in which this bill is unconstitutional in a “Reason for Vote” entered into the Senate Journal, beginning at the bottom of page 923.