Emails, Blake Rocap, Feb. 17-22, 2016
4:47 p.m.
The statement covers multiple legislative sessions, and multiple bills, and is a statement reflecting my body of work when I was hired by NARAL, again and again and the ACLU to stop legislation that would take away abortion rights. I was hired to stop the bills, and did a great deal of work doing so.
Here are some quick specific examples I can point to where actions I took stopped the bill. This does not include the extensive work I did stopping the four bills in the 2013 regular session that eventually made up SB 5, which Sen. Davis filibustered in the 1st special session.
1. In 2011 HB 2555, would have drastically changed the process for minors to access an abortion and removed the option of a judicial bypass. As a volunteer attorney who represents abused teens I had intimate knowledge of the real life situations that some teens encounter. I also am an expert in the statutory provisions and their history and was able to educate the members and their staff how the current law came to be, the several different provisions which would have remained un-amended in the bill that presented a constitutional problem and the real world problem for teens in Texas. The bill was not voted out of committee and was stopped.
2. In 2013 HB 997 would have banned abortion from insurance policies. I testified against the bill and had specific conversations with members who told me that my testimony was impressive and would likely keep the bill from passing. The bill did not pass. A bill attempting to ban abortion coverage in insurance has been filed every session since 2011. I have through various efforts tried to stop them as part of my work, none have passed.
3. In 2013 HB 2308 would have imposed difficult reporting requirements on physicians and imposed penalties. I testified against the bill and tried to work with the bill’s author to reach an acceptable compromise. When we could not reach a compromise I alerted the committee members and chair and the bill was not voted out. Our coalition of pro-choice lobbyists assigned me to work on this bill, I did, and the bill was stopped.
I worked on stopping every abortion bill since 2009 (four regular legislative sessions and their special sessions.) approximately 130 bills or proposed constitutional amendments.
In addition to the names I provided you on the phone, please also feel free to call Susan Hays.
Let me know if you need contact information for the people I mentioned on the phone, or want a list of them again.
I’ve attached a press release of pro-choice leaders who have endorsed me, and here is a link to the resolution the house passed in my honor for all of this work:
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=83R&Bill=HR2794
On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 4:48 PM, Selby, Gardner (CMG-Austin) wrote:
Send contact information, yes.
To what degree did you personally stop the examples offered?
g.
(Rocap)
5:39 p.m.
I'm not sure I understand the question, as it follows me providing you specific details of the actions I took which stopped the example bills.
As far as the other more than 100 bills which sought to restrict abortion rights, I stopped them by writing amendments, questions and points of order to help House Democrats chub on the floor so they would not pass, specifically SB 182 in 2009.
I stopped them by lobbying the chairman of committees so the bills were not heard, too many bills to list
I stopped them by providing information to members of the committee they were being heard in so they did not receive favorable consideration in the committee, too many bills to list.
I stopped them by working within the rules of the calendars committee so they did not reach the house floor in time to pass. (HB 2828 in 2011)
I stopped them by testifying on them in the committee in which they were heard. (examples provided)
I stopped them by ensuring they did not have sufficient votes in the Senate to be heard. (The four bills that made up SB 5 which Sen Davis filibustered)
I stopped them by strategizing with lobbyists from other organizations (Planed Parenthood, TFN) about the most effective way to deploy our resources to keep the bills from being heard or keep them from passing committee.
I stopped them by working with Texans across the state to communicate with the members that represented them to keep the bills bottled up in committee or have them not be heard in committee.
I stopped them by helping committee members ask questions of the bills authors to show their un-workability or true intent to keep Texans from accessing healthcare.
As mentioned here's some people to contact:
Rep Jessica Farrar, I assume you can find her.
Heather Busby, Executive Director NARAL Pro-choice Texas, ….
Sandra Haverleh former Lobbyist for Planned Parenthood, ...
Susan Hays ...
On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 6:02 PM, Selby, Gardner (CMG-Austin) wrote:
A couple of lobbyists for abortion restrictions say the mailer claim has flaws. Joe Pojman emailed that since 2011, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas has been spectacularly unsuccessful stopping such legislation. Melissa Conway blames a Republican House leader, Byron Cook, with stopping measures from reaching the House floor.
g.
2:22 p.m.
Feb. 18, 2016
Note that I worked for NARAL in 2009, additionally I'm not surprised that an anti-choice extremist wants to undermine the success of myself, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, the ACLU of Texas, Democratic leaders and others. I believe his anti-choice agenda and need to fundraise for his own organization and appear successful to his constituency makes his motives for attacking me, NARAL and our successes pretty clear. They know I've stood up to them and won, as evidenced by the specific examples I provided.
Thanks,
Blake
2:10 p.m.
Feb. 22, 2016
First – Anti-choice lobbyists attacking the successes of the pro-choice movement, despite our minority status in the legislature in Texas, is nothing new, nor is their agenda not clear. Their goal is to take away constitutionally-guaranteed rights and delegitimize any effort to block their continuous assault on access to safe, legal abortion in Texas. These distorted attacks on my record of fighting back against them should not be remotely surprising to you. If anything it speaks to my experience and effectiveness that extremists view me as a threat. They know experience matters, and that my five sessions of legislative experience in the Texas State House poses a real obstacle to their anti-choice agenda.
Rep. Farrar mentioned to me that you were out of Texas for some time; make sense? Over what time period?
Yes, my wife had a temporary assignment overseas and I went with her to support her career and care for our children, like many husbands would. This is why I was not a registered lobbyist for NARAL in 2015, but nevertheless, due to my institutional knowledge, the ACLU of Texas hired me to be a legislative strategist on abortion rights and reproductive health.
The 130 bills you say you stopped; that was over what period, which years? Do you have a list?
Here’s the link to the Legislative Research site. I ran a subject search for abortion for each session during the applicable years, 2009-2015
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/Search/BillSearch.aspx
It produced ~135 bills. This includes both bills that would restrict abortion access and the few to restore it. It does not include other bills on repro health and I do not believe it includes the “choose life” license plate bills. So I estimated 130, and that’s why I wrote “approximately” in my email to you. Might be off by a few but I believe that’s in the right ballpark.
Per SB 182 in 2009, what did you do or cause to happen that affected its path? The bare record is unclear.
I worked with the members of the house who were opposed to the bill to delay its placement on the calendar and stop it from passing by writing points of order, amendments, questions from the back mic. etc. as part of the efforts that killed the bill.
And as I answered previously: "I stopped them by writing amendments, questions and points of order to help House Democrats chub on the floor so they would not pass, specifically SB 182 in 2009."
ALSO: A similar mandate passed into law in 2011, correct? Did you try to stop that?
We did, and this time the effort to stop it was unsuccessful. I think you’ll agree that this doesn’t mean the effort in 2009 did not stop the bill.
If OU beats Texas this coming fall, it doesn’t mean Texas didn’t win last year. That success in 2009 meant greater access to abortion for Texans for the approximately two year time period before the bill that passed in 2011 eventually went into effect.
As I mentioned in our first exchange, there are a number of specific actions I took where I stopped the bills – 2013 HB 997, 2013 HB 2308 – something that I believe has been independently confirmed to you.
Per HB 2555 in 2011, it looks like an anti-abortion activist, Republican Joe Pojman, registered in opposition at the House hearing, an indication you were agreed in opposition. That make sense? Fair to say Republicans were divided?
That’s a possibility that the anti-choice extremists were divided on the issue. The bill failed to get out of committee. However based on the record here, there is no witness list showing their opposition so I can’t confirm it for you.
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=82R&Bill=HB2555
I don’t recall their testimony in opposition, although it is possible.
You write that in 2013 you ensured that four anti-abortion proposals “did not have sufficient votes in the Senate to be heard.” Could you unpack that? How did you do this? Any independent confirmation?
Those bills needed 2/3rds of the senate to agree to bring them up. Part of my work involved making sure these bills did not get the necessary votes to proceed, by pursuing a number of tactics and strategies, generally known as lobbying, including confidential conversations, which I and others believe directly contributed to the failure of the bills.
You added that the four bills then made up SB 5 which Sen. Davis filibustered. What she filibustered ultimately passed into law that year, agree?
Unfortunately, it did. And as you noted in your first follow-up question – this isn’t the only abortion bill in Texas in the past decade. It may have been one of the more high-profile, but as I pointed out in our first exchange, there are a number of other bills that I stopped. I don’t believe that just because we eventually lost on one set of bills, that means all other successes and efforts are not significant, or did not happen.
Given your interest in SB5, you’ll note that the mail piece does not claim we halted the content of SB5 at all. It in fact acknowledges I was “one of” the individuals involved in the fight to beat it – but does not suggest a different outcome. The statement can be proven by the specific examples I provided, especially the insurance ban which is not law.
It’s a complicated process – which is why Progressive Democrats in HD49 need to elect someone with significant experience in the process to help make their priorities a reality – not just a proposal to go nowhere or talking points in a stump speech.
Thanks,
Blake
On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 2:20 PM, Selby, Gardner (CMG-Austin) wrote:
So you were out of country what time period?
(Rocap)
2:25 p.m.
Mid July 2013- December 2015.
Feb. 22, 2016
(Selby)
Subject: Schaefer statement re. HB2308
Gardner,
Below is Rep. Schaefer's statement regarding your earlier question on the reason House Bill 2308 never made it out of committee in the 83rd session:
"Byron Cook was the reason my abortion reporting bill never left committee in the 83rd. Chairman Cook later voted to kill the same measure when I presented it as an amendment to the HHSC sunset bill in the 84th."
Thanks for contacting us about this--please let us know if we can be of further assistance.
--Alisha Jackson
Alisha J. Jackson | Chief of Staff
Representative Matt Schaefer, House District
(Rocap)
9:53 p.m.
Rep. Schaefer's account is consistent with mine. As I wrote you before, "I testified against the bill and tried to work with the bill’s author to reach an acceptable compromise. When we could not reach a compromise I alerted the committee members and chair and the bill was not voted out."
I believe my knowledge of the current reporting requirements and my work analyzing the bill, pointing to its flaws in my testimony, and other communications with the committee about it, was essential to stopping it.
Let me add some context to what else is going here, outside of my own campaign and the election for HD 49. There is a rift between several anti-abortion groups, some of them are actively working to defeat Rep. Cook in the primary so it is strategic for them to lay the blame at his feet for all the anti-abortion legislation that has failed. On the other hand some groups (Joe Pojman) are supporting Rep. Cook so it supports their narrative that they have had great success in passing legislation and have not been stopped.