“The Lieutenant Governor gave the Senator in the pink tennis shoes 12 hours to speak last Tuesday. It’s time he gave me or another conservative pro-life Republican a few minutes to move the question and pass the bill” -Sen. Dan Patrick.
AUSTIN – Senator Dan Patrick, who announced his campaign for Lt. Governor last week, will announce on the Laura Ingraham’s nationally syndicated radio show that if Senator Wendy Davis, or any other Senate Democrat, attempts to once again filibuster the pro-life and Women’s Healthcare bill, he will immediately rise to stop the filibuster by moving to call the previous question. Last Tuesday night it was Senator Patrick who rose at approximately 11:45 to call the previous question so a vote could be taken on SB 5.
“I plan to stop Senator Davis or any Democrat from attempting, for the second time, to slow down or kill our package of pro-life legislation,” said Senator Patrick. “Senator Davis and the mob had their say last week, it’s time to pass this bill and I intend to do all I can to do so. It’s time the pro-life community had their voice heard,” said Patrick.
On Tuesday Senator Patrick presented the Lt. Governor with a green card before session began with the signatures necessary under Senate rules to ‘Call the Previous Question.’ Senator Patrick wanted to move the question as soon as he had gathered the needed sixteen votes to pass the motion. Senator Patrick and other Senators gathered the votes throughout the afternoon. By early evening they had the sixteen votes needed to pass the motion.
Senator Ken Paxton, a member of the original group who wanted to move the question, and Senator Patrick approached the Lt. Governor on multiple occasions between 7:30 and 9:00 pm and requested the Senate move to ‘Call the Previous Question’. That would have ended the filibuster and allowed a vote on the bill. The Lt. Governor said he was not ready to do so.
They showed the Lt. Governor tweets from the crowd that suggested they were planning to disrupt proceedings at some point. Senator Patrick asked the Lt. Governor again at 9:30pm to recognize him to move to ‘Call the Previous Question’, Senator Patrick was told to “wait another hour or so.”
“I told the Lt. Governor that I was very concerned if we waited any longer the Democrats would kill the clock and the bill. I told him the crowd was getting out of control and we needed to move quickly,” Patrick said. “The Lt. Governor wanted to wait until 10:30pm,” stated Patrick.
Because of a procedure motion by Democrats at that time Senator Patrick could not ‘Call the Previous Question’ until that issue was resolved. It was not resolved until approximately 11:45pm. At that time Senator Duncan, who now was serving as President of the Senate, recognized Senator Patrick who then ‘Called the Previous Question’. That motion passed. However, the Lt. Governor seemed confused at that point in all of the noise and did not attempt to call the vote on the bill until it was too late.
Patrick says he is not going to let the Lt. Governor try to stand in the way of those of us who want to call the question again. “The Lt. Governor should recognize me or another member who rises to call the question. He gave the Senator in the pink tennis shoes 12 hours to speak last Tuesday. It’s time he gave me or another conservative pro-life Republican a few minutes to move the question and pass the bill,” Patrick concluded.
