March 15, 2023      5:33 PM

Some Republicans raise questions about push by Chair Burrows to broadly preempt local government, concerns emerge about protections for payday lenders

Chair Burrows was nearly yelling at members of House State Affairs when closing on his bill after he couldn’t answer basic questions about what regulations the bill would apply to. He has said “This bill is designed to be somewhat of a living document.”

In Texas House State Affairs on Wednesday, Calendars Chairman Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, sounded really frustrated after he received pushback from some of his fellow Republicans and others as he laid out his proposal for broad preemption of local government regulations.

After the Texas Municipal League raised questions about what regulations the bill would even apply to – Burrows himself has taken pride to say it is deliberately vague – Burrows tweeted during the hearing: “Listening to TML lie and confuse has never made me want to ban taxpayer funded lobbying more than today!!!”

The so-called “Texas Regulatory Consistency Act” – some call it a “super-preemption bill” – takes aim at the patchwork of local regulations that supporters say makes operating a small business in Texas more difficult. It also allows residents to sue if restricted ordinances are in place. The proposal has been championed by conservative media since Burrows filed it, but some conservative lawmakers and faith leaders like Texas Baptists wondered aloud today whether it would be a boon to payday lenders, for example.

By James Russell

Copyright March 15, 2023, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved