Senate Bill 7 would require people to use restrooms that match their birth gender and fine institutions up to $25,000 for repeated violations.

All they could get was a temporary win. But the lawmakers said taking the extraordinary measure of breaking quorum was justified by the harm they felt their mostly Black and Hispanic constituents would face under the GOP's voting bill.

“This was a show of strength,” said Ina Minjarez, District 124 state representative.

Senate Bill 7, a Republican priority voting bill, would limit early voting hours, curtail local voting options and further clamp down on mail-in voting, among several other provisions.

House and Senate negotiators have reached a deal on competing versions of Senate Bill 7. Once both chambers sign off on the agreement, it will head to the governor’s desk before it becomes law.

Corporate giants American Airlines and Dell Technologies on Thursday became the first business heavyweights to lend their opposition to Republicans’ legislative proposals to further restrict voting in Texas.

Senate Bill 7 — one of Texas Republicans’ priority elections bills — would limit extended early voting hours, prohibit drive-thru voting and allow partisan poll watchers to record voters who receive help filling out their ballots. It would also forbid local election officials from encouraging voters to fill out applications to vote by mail, even if they qualify. Texans would also have to provide proof of disability to qualify for mail-in voting under the bill. SB 7, which was offered under the banner of “election integrity,” sailed out of the Republican-dominated Senate State Affairs Committee on a party-line vote. The bill was also widely panned as detrimental to local efforts that would widen access to voting, particularly extended early voting hours and drive-thru voting offered in Harris County in November.