Usually, it’s members of law enforcement who shout “Open up!” (and “It’s the police!”) when they want to make an arrest. But these are unusual times.
Now it’s we the people who are shouting “Open up!” Not because we want to make an arrest, but because we want to effect a release: our own. A citizens’ release.
Texas state legislators have heard our shouts and come together to do what’s right for our state and its citizens, passing the Pandemic Liability Protection Act through both chambers with supermajorities.
Senate Bill 6 provides COVID-19 liability protections for health care providers, businesses, non-profits, religious institutions, and schools that have made good-faith efforts to follow safety protocols during the course of the public health emergency declared by Gov. Greg Abbott.
“There’s far more to do to help businesses and their employees,” Abbott declared in his “State of the State” address as he called on lawmakers to draft a bill providing civil liability protection for businesses and healthcare facilities that “have gone above and beyond to open and operate safely [but] now face the crosshairs of lawsuits. Texas businesses that have acted in good faith shouldn’t have their livelihoods destroyed by frivolous lawsuits.”
State Sen. Kelly Hancock responded to the governor’s plea with SB6, which generated bipartisan support.
“This legislation is critically important … to get workers back to work … not protect bad actors,” affirms Glenn Hamer of the Texas Association of Business.
Jon Opelt of the Texas Alliance for Patient Access agrees that the bill “does not protect bad actors who are grossly negligent, engage in willful misconduct, or are consciously indifferent to their patient’s welfare and safety.”
We’ve suffered enough from bad actors in Texas, those ever-so-clever lads and lasses determined never to let a crisis go to waste and always to find a way to exploit the latest. Good actors try to alleviate real threats. Bad ones do just the opposite.
We need more of the former, fewer of the latter. Surely, this is something we can all agree on.