The Texas House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence may not be hearing Senate bills anytime soon.
That's according to committee chair Jeff Leach, R-Plano, who during a hearing Wednesday accused the Senate of weakening a bill aimed at ending the use of nondisclosure agreements in child sexual abuse and human trafficking cases.
"To me, as author of the bill, [this] is simply unacceptable," Leach told the committee at the end of Wednesday's meeting. "If the Senate treats Trey's Law with the care that I believe that it deserves and quickly advances our bill without weakening it, I'd be happy to reschedule and eager these Senate bills and possibly other Senate bills."
However, it's not clear why Leach believed the Senate was weakening his bill. He said he was still waiting to get validation of that claim and canceled Thursday's planned hearing of five Senate bills.
KERA News reached out Leach and will update this story with any response.
HB 748, or "Trey's Law," was approved unanimously in April by the House before it moved to the Senate for approval. It was scheduled for a Senate hearing Thursday morning and has a companion bill known as SB 1587.
It was authored and filed by Leach in November after the House committee heard testimony the month before from child sexual abuse victims and victims' advocates.
Among those who spoke both in October and at another hearing in March was Cindy Clemishire, whose alleged abuser Robert Morris was indicted on child sexual abuse charges in Oklahoma in March. Clemishire accused Morris of abusing her in the 1980s when she was a child.
Morris, the now-disgraced founding pastor of Southlake-based megachurch Gateway Church, turned himself in to Oklahoma authorities and has since been out on bond.
The standoff between the Texas House and Senate comes just two days ahead of Morris' first hearing in his case.
If found guilty, Morris could face up to 20 years in prison for each charge.
Penelope Rivera is KERA's breaking news reporter. Got a tip? Email Penelope Rivera at privera@kera.org.
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