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Zwiener files bills on pipelines, election law and more

Erin Zwiener, the firsttime state representative for Texas House District 45, has filed more than 40 bills since she took her oath of office. Her proposed legislation includes measures to increase voter participation, change how sexual harassment in the workplace is handled and improve the documentation of sexual assault cases.

Pipelines

The first bill Zwiener filed regarding natural gas pipeline construction was House Bill 2277, which would require the Texas Railroad Commission to go through the environmental impact study process before a pipeline can be built. Zwiener said many people think that an environmental impact study is already a requirement.

“It should be, but startlingly enough, it’s not,” she said.

Federal law requires such studies for interstate pipelines, Zwiener said, but not for intrastate pipelines.

“I find that very alarming,” she said.

An environmental impact study serves two purposes, Zwiener said: to understand the consequences of a project and to find ways to mitigate those consequences if the project moves forward. She said that Kinder Morgan representatives have said they are doing environmental studies but have not shared those with the public.

“I’m not willing to accept their assurances that they’ve done their environmental assessments,” she said. “... We need some public oversight and accountability.”

Another bill, HB 3324, would require pipeline operators to submit a site-specific contingency plan that “describes measures to be taken to control, contain and collect any discharge of fluids from the pipeline to minimize impacts to groundwater in this state.”

The state can reject a plan if it finds it is insufficient to safeguard groundwater supplies and will be required to send any plans accepted under this law to the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration or a successor agency.

“That’s something I hope we’ll dig into and talk about more,” Zwiener said, adding that she wants to make sure Texas is abiding by the federal Clean Water Act.

The Environmental Protection Agency has delegated Clean Water Act authority to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, or TCEQ. However, statutes prevent TCEQ from performing any oversight of oil and natural gas. Those industries fall under the Texas Railroad Commission.

“I have heard directly from the Railroad Commission that all they look at in the construction of these pipelines is safety,” Zwiener said, and not about the potential effects on groundwater or streams.

For HB 3326, Zwiener said, she has been working with the city of Kyle. The municipality is concerned that if the Kinder Morgan pipeline goes through and is buried at the proposed depth of 2-3 feet underground, she said, “That doesn’t leave any room for other infrastructure. … Kyle is growing so fast, the development potential they may lose is huge.”

HB 3326 would allow a municipality to require a pipeline to be buried up to 12 feet.

“We’re trying to allow them to set more reasonable standards,” Zwiener said.

Zwiener’s HB 3327 would require common carriers that intend to use eminent domain to acquire real property for a pipeline to send a written notice of intent to local officials, including the county judge and groundwater conservation districts.

“One of the concerns I’ve had is that our local elected officials didn’t know this pipeline was going through until landowners were already being contacted,” she said.

Notifying local officials could prove beneficial, since they know what kind of projects and what routes would make sense for their area and what would affect the environment, economy, tax base and public safety on a local level.

“They’re not drawing maps from an office in Kansas,” she said.

By noon on Friday, Zwiener had filed additional bills regarding pipeline construction, including one that calls for a temporary moratorium on the use of eminent domain by private pipeline companies until Sept. 1, 2021. Another would establish pipeline emergency preparedness fees to be collected for permits or registration for pipelines. The fees would be deposited in a fund that would be used for pipeline emergency preparedness grants to help fund projects like the creation of evacuation plans in the event of pipeline-related emergencies.

Election law

House Bill 1950 would allow student identification from public universities to serve as adequate identification at the voting booth.

“What I never want to happen is I never want a first-time voter, or wouldbe first-time voter, to show up at the polls, be turned away and not come back,” Zwiener said.

She said that when people start voting young, they become lifelong voters, and encouraging participation could help with Texas’ abysmal voter turnout rate. (According to the Pew Trusts, in the 2014 midterms Texas’ voter turnout was approximately 28.9 percent.)

“Texas can do better than that,” Zwiener said.

She noted that students who live on campus or depend on public transportation to get to and from class do not always carry driver’s licenses. Allowing the use of all state-issued IDs, including public university IDs, to be used as identification for voting would help increase voter turnout, she said.

“I am right now in conversation with some of my Republican colleagues … about if there are any parameters we could put on this that would make them more comfortable,” she said, adding that she hopes the legislation gets a hearing.

Another of Zwiener’s bills, HB 2276, would eliminate the five-day period for public notice of the time for voting at an early voting location. Zwiener said the bill was inspired specifically by what happened in Hays County during the 2018 midterm election, when the county was threatened with a lawsuit if it did not extend early voting at the polling location on the Texas State University campus. The commissioners voted to extend early voting but had to give a certain amount of public notice before early voting could resume at the selected locations.

Zwiener said that she agrees that public notice is important, but, “We think that five-day period doesn’t serve any public good.”

Sexual harassment

Zwiener is also working to extend the time period for reporting workplace sexual harassment to the Texas Workforce Commission and to make sexual harassment protections available to more Texas workers.

HB 2278 would give victims of workplace sexual harassment two full years to file a complaint.

“Right now in Texas, you only have 180 days to report a sexual harassment complaint to the Texas Workforce Commission,” she said, noting that the rule applies even at the Capitol.

“I know how difficult it can be to make the decision about whether you should report it,” Zwiener said. She said she has experienced workplace sexual harassment and knows that victims often ask themselves if reporting it is worth it, if there might be retaliation, if the complaint will result in being fired or if the complaint will be taken seriously.

“Because of those inherent challenges … folks need a longer window to come forward,” she said.

Zwiener said that Rep. Victoria Naeve has proposed a similar bill that extends the reporting period to 300 days, which matches the statute of limitations in some other states. Zwiener said her office is talking with Naeve’s office about the similar pieces of legislation.

Zwiener has also proposed HB 2279, which she said Sen. Judith Zaffirini is carrying in the Senate and which would expand sexual harassment protections.

“Right now, Texas does the federal minimum,” Zwiener said. “We apply sexual harassment protections to companies with 15 or more employees.”

That covers fewer and fewer companies, Zwiener said, as more companies hire contractors instead of employees. Moreover, she said, a worker can experience sexual harassment at a company of any size.

“I believe every Texas worker deserves those protections,” she said, noting that small businesses that currently fall outside those protections are in “environments where we know sexual harassment is common.”

Zaffirini’s version of the bill in the Senate is Senate Bill 46.

Sexual assault cases

Zwiener’s House Bill 2678 would allow researchers access to anonymous data from forensic exams performed after sexual assaults even if the victim has not reported the assault to law enforcement.

“This allows the evidence to be collected and for them to hit a pause button,” she said, before they figure out whether they want to go forward with a report to law enforcement.

Researchers would have access to the information to better understand the prevalence of sexual assault, Zwiener said.

Another bill, HB 2672, would require the Department of Public Safety to compile data on the attrition of sexual assault cases. Zwiener said DPS would keep track of how many cases are referred for prosecution and, of those, how many go forward to active prosecution in court.

“The reason for trying to compile that data … is so that researchers can look into the whys and figure out why some of these cases are falling through the cracks,” she said.

Wimberley View

P.O. Box 49
Wimberley, TX 78676
Phone: 512-847-2202
Fax: 512-847-9054