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Posted: Thursday, February 26, 2015 10:49 am | Updated: 2:09 pm, Thu Feb 26, 2015.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) An outspoken tea party lawmaker is demanding to know why the Republican House speaker hasn't referred one of the session's potentially most-contentious bills to committee.

Bedford Republican Jonathan Stickland took to the floor Thursday to complain that his bill repealing in-state tuition at public universities for some students who are in the country illegally had "been skipped."

Stickland says he filed the bill in November, long before the session began Jan. 13, but it hadn't been assigned to committee. He said bills filed subsequently had been.

Bills must be approved in committee before going to the full House.

Speaker Joe Straus responded that assigning bills to committee out of numerical order "was not uncommon."

Conservative grassroots groups have long claimed Straus deliberately delays hot-button bills.

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Texas tea party lawmaker worries tuition bill being skipped