As Texas swoons under an unprecedented heat wave, its governor has signed a “preemption” bill to strip cities like Houston and Dallas from setting standards for local workplaces — including guaranteed water breaks for outdoor workers.
The “Texas Regulatory Consistency Act” bars municipal governments from enacting policies that go beyond state law in eight broad areas and voids existing city and local laws that do so. Cities will be subject to lawsuits and damages for discrepancies between their policies and those of the state.
That means the interests of voters in the state’s predominantly Democratic-leaning cities are being trampled by Republican state-level leaders and their business supporters. Worse, the Texas bill is merely the latest in a series of measures by states to preempt the authority of local governments and overrule their voters.