Disabled veteran lawmaker derails bill to help spouses of vets

April 13--A tea party-backed legislator who is a disabled veteran on Thursday derailed a bill that would give an advantage to the spouses of disabled veterans applying for state jobs.

State Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, said he opposed House Bill 92 because he believes state government jobs should be filled by the most qualified applicants.

"In that case, you're against veterans having preference," the bill's author, state Rep. Ryan Guillen, D-Rio Grande City, said in an exchange on the House floor.

"These people are not veterans. They're spouses of veterans," Tinderholt said, who served 10 years in the Air Force and 11 years in the Army.

"For 100 percent disabled veterans, for those that are unemployed, the main breadwinner in the home is the spouse," Guillen said.

The bill had been posted to the Local and Consent Calendar, the agenda for non-controversial bills that are expected to pass unanimously and without debate. It was pulled off the calendar following Tinderholt's opposition but can be re-posted to a regular agenda in the future.

The episode was one in a series of bills that Tinderholt and state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, another tea party-backed legislator, questioned on Thursday, causing several of them to be pulled off the expedited agenda.

Tinderholt said that he wanted to ensure that the bills he contested were thoroughly debated and were open to amendments. He said that his and Stickland's objections were not intended to slow down House proceedings but to raise serious issues with the bills.

"We will never move anything off the Local and Cosnent Calendar just for the sake of moving them," he said. "This isn't coordinated."

___

(c)2017 Austin American-Statesman, Texas

Visit Austin American-Statesman, Texas at www.statesman.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.