It’s not over: Starbase control of beaches still possible

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Senate Bill 2188 and House Bill 4660, two primary pieces of legislation that would have given Starbase rather than Cameron County weekday control over closures of Boca Chica Beach and S.H. 4 for SpaceX operations, will not pass the current legislative session.

That’s according to state Rep. Erin Gamez, D-Brownsville, who said, however, that the bills’ language could still make it into other legislation via a suspension of the rules during the conference committee report stage of the Legislature.

Conference committees are set up when the House and the Senate are unable to agree on the precise language contained on legislation they both have passed.

“We are tracking all bills but we are keeping a particularly close eye on SB 1198 and HB 5246,” Gamez said via text.

SB 1198 relates to the “designation of spaceports as critical infrastructure facilities for purposes of criminal and civil liability,” while HB 5246 relates to “administration, powers, and duties of the Texas Space Commission and Texas Aerospace Research and Space Economy Consortium, to other governmental entities regarding aerospace, aviation, and space exploration initiatives and activities, and to the abolishment of the spaceport trust fund,” according to summaries of the bills.

SB 2188 from Sen. Adam Hinojosa, R-Corpus Christi, and HB 4660 from Rep. Janie Lopez, R-San Benito, both would have removed the county’s authority over beach and road closures for SpaceX operations on weekdays and handed it to elected officials of Starbase, SpaceX’s newly incorporated Type-C municipality at Boca Chica.

County officials, who would have retained closure authority on weekends, were nonetheless adamantly opposed to the legislation, as were South Texas Environmental Justice Network and other environmental groups opposed to SpaceX in general. HB 4660 was left stranded in committee on April 14. SB 2188 likewise failed to advance far enough.

An amendment with similar language added to unrelated legislation, HB 1240 as an amendment in an effort to get it through, though that didn’t work either.

“That amendment was not germane, and the bill was sent back to the Senate in what appears to be an effort to remove the Starbase beach language, so the unrelated HB 1240 can move forward without controversy,” Gamez told The Brownsville Herald.

Gamez said in a separate statement that her office had been closely monitoring and looking forward to “robust, public debate” on the Hinojosa/Lopez bills.

“Now that SB 2188/HB 4660 have failed to advance to the House Floor for debate, there is talk of bringing the beach provisions up in a conference committee report by tacking them on to another unrelated bill, that would have very limited debate and no possibility for amendments,” she said. “I am opposed to using this parliamentary maneuver on such a consequential issue.”

Gamez said the matter is too important not to be subject to serious debate “with ample notice to the public to give input.”

“After public education, this is the issue constituents have contacted my office with concerns about most this session,” she said. “I am looking forward to working with all parties on this issue during the interim — when it can be given the time and public input that it deserves.”

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