“Austin’s “ban the box” ordinance, which prevents companies from asking job applicants to acknowledge their criminal history early in the hiring process, dodged a bullet Tuesday at the Texas Senate,” the American-Statesman reported.
Sen. Joan Huffman changed the original wording of House Bill 91 in committee to include a ban on such ridiculous ordinances saying she did not believe it was the government’s place to tell private businesses how to make hiring decisions.
In rode the Leftwing Democrats with Sen. Royce West calling a point of order, noting that the bill no longer matched its caption, which said HB 91 was about “occupational licensing requirements and an applicant’s criminal history.”
The Statesman reported that the Senate parliamentarian upheld the point of order, and Huffman was forced to withdraw the bill. Huffman brought the bill back to the floor but to cure the point of order had removed the prohibition on “ban the box” ordinances.
This was a good attempt by Huffman to stop these overreaching local ordinances but the real problem is that the straightforward legislation to accomplish such didn’t move early in the session.
Isn’t it funny that the Legislature can find time to pass all sorts of things which restrict our Liberty, grow government, and deal with such meaningless things as big lottery winners getting to remain anonymous but, when it comes to attacks on our personal freedoms, the running of our businesses, and the enforcing our values with our children, things are more slow-going.
Our founders understood well that the natural inclination of government is to seize and exercise power over citizens. That is why we should generally favor less government in terms of both power and taxation even when such butts up against the latest faddish well-meaning idea.
Stopping “Ban the Box” ordinances falters in Senate
Robert Pratt
“Austin’s “ban the box” ordinance, which prevents companies from asking job applicants to acknowledge their criminal history early in the hiring process, dodged a bullet Tuesday at the Texas Senate,” the American-Statesman reported.
Sen. Joan Huffman changed the original wording of House Bill 91 in committee to include a ban on such ridiculous ordinances saying she did not believe it was the government’s place to tell private businesses how to make hiring decisions.
In rode the Leftwing Democrats with Sen. Royce West calling a point of order, noting that the bill no longer matched its caption, which said HB 91 was about “occupational licensing requirements and an applicant’s criminal history.”
The Statesman reported that the Senate parliamentarian upheld the point of order, and Huffman was forced to withdraw the bill. Huffman brought the bill back to the floor but to cure the point of order had removed the prohibition on “ban the box” ordinances.
This was a good attempt by Huffman to stop these overreaching local ordinances but the real problem is that the straightforward legislation to accomplish such didn’t move early in the session.
Isn’t it funny that the Legislature can find time to pass all sorts of things which restrict our Liberty, grow government, and deal with such meaningless things as big lottery winners getting to remain anonymous but, when it comes to attacks on our personal freedoms, the running of our businesses, and the enforcing our values with our children, things are more slow-going.
Our founders understood well that the natural inclination of government is to seize and exercise power over citizens. That is why we should generally favor less government in terms of both power and taxation even when such butts up against the latest faddish well-meaning idea.