In a unanimous decision, the nine members of the committee approved seven separate bills authored by Taylor. The bills will soon be read on the Senate floor, see debate and then go through votes to be sent to the state House of Representatives.
The bill will undergo the same process in the House as it did in the Senate. It can be sent to Abbott's desk at any time.
Taylor's bills explore a variety of ethics issues that have been discussed in sessions past. These reforms include:
- prohibiting elected officials from claiming publicly funded pensions when convicted of abuse of office;
- removing the governor, statewide elected officials and members of the Legislature from office if convicted of a felony;
- requiring elected officials to disclose their own, their spouses' and their children's contracts for goods and services with government entities;
- limiting lobbyist spending on legislators and requiring greater reporting by lobbyists;
- barring a registered lobbyist from running for elected office; and
- restricting elected officials from becoming lobbyists less than two years after leaving public office.
Taylor seemed optimistic about the future of the bill after its success in the State Affairs Committee.
"Not only does this [success in the committee] speak to the commonsense, bipartisan measures within this bill, but it also gives the Legislature more than ample time to answer this charge and pass ethics reform," Taylor said.
After filing Senate Bill 14, which includes all of Taylor's reforms in one bill, a total of 22 senators other than Taylor signed their names onto the legislation. Other bills passed out of the Senate include each of Taylor's proposed reforms broken down separately to give each a better chance of passing.
The bills include Senate Bill 14, Senate Bill 500, Senate Bill 501, Senate Bill 502, Senate Bill 503, Senate Bill 504 and Senate Bill 505.
Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, is expected to shepherd the legislation through House.
