Charlie Geren is NOT trustworthy.
Charlie Geren frequently posts on Facebook taking credit for things he does not deserve. He will often exaggerate his accomplishments, tell half-truths, or omit details important for context. Below are three recent examples. (Click on each image for a larger view.)
Lie #1: Keep Landfills Away From Silver Creek
The problem with Charlie Geren's claim that he is fighting to keep a waste facility from creating a landfill in Silver Creek is that he is the one likely responsible for this in the first place. In 2015, Geren filed HB 1794, which capped the amount that cities and counties can collect from companies that contaminate the environment.
If you want to know why a waste facility can build a landfill in a residential area near water sources, look no further than Geren's own bill. It modified the Water Code in such a way that it limits the civil penalty amount which may be assessed to between $50 and $25,000 total per day. It includes a provision that any civil penalty sought must be brought to the attention of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The special counsel with the Harris County attorney's office at the time, Terry O'Rourke, described the bill as "a polluter protection bill."
The suggestion that Charlie Geren is fighting to prevent this landfill after he submitted a bill that would limit the civil penalties of those that contaminate families' water supply is hypocritical, to say the least.
Sorry, Charlie. No.
Lie #2: Charlie Geren is Protecting Texas' Children
In this most recent legislative session, the house passed HB 1898, "a grant program to fund the provision by children's hospitals of mental and behavior health services to children" in Texas. Before the House voted on it, Representative Tony Tinderholt (HD94) offered an amendment that would prevent awarding a grant "to a children's hospital that provides services, medications, or procedures for transitioning a child's biological sex." His amendment was killed by point of order raised "on the grounds that the amendment is not germane." The point of order was raised by Charlie Geren himself and sustained by House Speaker Dade Phelan.
The Texas Senate added language to the bill that a "grant recipient may not use a grant awarded under the grant program to . . . provide mental health services, including treatments or procedures, to a child that affirm the child's perception of the child's sex if that perception is inconsistent with the child's biological sex." The distinction between the language here and Rep. Tinderholt's amendment is significant. Wherein Rep Tinderhold's amendment would have precluded any grant money from going to a children's hospital that transitions a child's gender, the Senate language simply precludes the hospital from using the grant money specifically for that, but the hospitals are still free to use other money to pay for it.
When given the opportunity to actually protect children, Charlie Geren chose instead to put them at risk from the very "radicals . . . forcing their ideas onto our kids" he wants credit for protecting them from.
Sorry, Charlie. No.
