INSIDER
Some Texas lawmakers including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick slammed the Biden administration over the auction of wall materials. But the sale was directed by Congress — and Texas has already bought some of it.
If early bill filings for the next Texas Legislative Session are anything to go by, then one thing is clear: Lawmakers are again hyperfocusing on the state’s higher education institutions.
Days after the Texas House GOP caucus backed Cook, Abbott made clear that he expects Republican representatives to do the same.
Faculty senates have long played a key role in developing curriculum and protecting open inquiry. State leaders have also accused them of liberal indoctrination.
Trey Martinez Fischer, a San Antonio representative in the Texas House, was replaced on Wednesday as chair of the Democratic caucus.
Patrick contends retailers have exploited a law passed in 2019 to sell unregulated and potentially harmful consumable tetrahydrocannabinol products.
Modeled after the state’s $6 billion cancer research fund, the dementia fund — a legislative priority for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — could pump hundreds of millions of dollars into Texas researchers.
With Donald Trump returning to the White House, Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have both recently signaled new openness to winding down the state’ border security operation.
School voucher supporters say they have the votes to get a bill across both the Texas Senate, led by Patrick, and the House, which has repeatedly blocked such proposals.
Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump said Texas had fixed an error with voting machines, but Patrick quickly said there was no problem to fix.
A new breed of activists wants Texas to tame costs by building more housing. But longstanding opposition to such policies remains strong.
Texas’ junk science statute has remained hamstrung for the last decade. So too have other criminal justice reforms, despite efforts from the Texas House.
Gov. Greg Abbott gave an inflated number of noncitizens removed from the state’s voter rolls, officials acknowledged, confirming findings by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune, and Votebeat.
Here’s what you need to know after a ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and Votebeat investigation found that Gov. Greg Abbott likely inflated the number of noncitizens on voter rolls.
The examination of Deloitte’s existing contracts comes after it failed to catch red flags in a company’s application for a loan to build or upgrade power plants in the state.
The new list includes many right-wing priorities, and would escalate Republicans’ wars against diversity, equity and inclusion programs and review laws to keep noncitizens off voter rolls.
Texas Republicans have been trying to reduce the state’s high property taxes for years, but some acknowledge eliminating them would be too expensive.
The Texas House speaker race is becoming increasingly crowded. Phelan, who is under fire from his right, says he plans to seek the leadership position again.
The county plans to ID eligible voters and send them registration forms. GOP officials say it’s an end-run around state law.
Texas needs hundreds of thousands more homes than it has, per one estimate. That shortage has driven up home prices and rents.
The company’s power outages in July have drawn the ire of state leaders. Here’s what you need to know.
Abbott demanded that the utility company produce a plan by the end of July outlining how it will improve power reliability ahead of future storms.
Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. Ted Cruz will be among the Texas Republicans who will address the Republican National Convention beginning Monday in Milwaukee, the Republican National Committee announced Saturday.
A Texas Monthly article revealed fresh allegations of sexual harassment against two senators with a history of scandals.
A utility company executive warns that about half a million Houston-area homes and businesses still won't have electricity into next week as wide outages from Hurricane Beryl drag on.
According to state filings, the utility is restoring power at a relatively quicker pace than after prior storms. Texans are still fed up.
In Houston, discharged patients remain in an arena to avoid powerless homes. Some 70 miles north, Livingston’s hospital is one of 17 in the state relying on a generator because of Hurricane Beryl power outages.
Gov. Greg Abbott has spent the duration of the hurricane on a pre-scheduled trip to meet with foreign diplomats in Asia, leaving Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick as acting governor.
Frustration is mounting that Houston appeared to buckle under a storm not as powerful as previous ones.
Tens of thousands of households and businesses aren’t expected to have electricity for most of this week.
After Hurricane Beryl slammed into Texas, knocking out power to nearly 3 million homes and businesses and killing at least three people it moved east and weakened to a tropical depression.
Texas officials are telling coastal residents to expect power outages and flooding as Beryl was forecast to regain hurricane strength before making landfall.
As Beryl is expected to land on the Texas coast early next week, many counties have started issuing mandatory and voluntary evacuations.
Texas officials are urging coastal residents to brace for a looming hit by Beryl as the storm is expected to regain hurricane strength.
Other cities have passed similar measures, but Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued to block them from going into effect.
Neither of the Texas GOP’s dueling factions landed a clean knockout blow during a grueling primary season that only seemed to set up further chaos and strife.
Business-minded Republicans spent millions trying to save Phelan, whose far-right opponent had the backing of Donald Trump, Ken Paxton and Dan Patrick. Phelan won by 366 votes, according to unofficial returns.
Get the latest election results for the Texas Primary runoff on May 28, 2024.
The Beaumont Republican issued his interim charges even as it remains unclear whether he’ll be reelected.
The battle to succeed retiring state Sen. Drew Springer has come down to a May 28 runoff between Brent Hagenbuch and Jace Yarbrough.
Citing community concerns about a planned cement plant in Grayson County, Patrick’s letter asks TCEQ to reject the permit and halt permit approvals statewide.
Examining charitable bail organizations and banning Delta 9 were also among Patrick’s priorities in the next legislative session.
Straus, who is Jewish, publicly confirmed the conversation for the first time Thursday. It had previously been reported by Texas Monthly.
The two state leaders and other prominent Republicans, like Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and former president Donald Trump, endorsed challengers in dozens of races citing the incumbents’ disloyalty to the party.
Attorney General Ken Paxton, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and former President Donald Trump are accusing Phelan of being a “RINO,” even as Phelan has overseen the passage of some of the most conservative bills in recent history.
The calls for Texas to defend itself and defy the federal government have set fire to a long-simmering fight over states’ rights, emboldening right-wing figures.
The bombshell request by retiring state Sen. Drew Springer, R-Muenster, comes after Paxton decided to stop fighting a whistleblower lawsuit whose claims factored into his impeachment trial.
After nearly a year’s worth of legislative sessions, several issues are poised to dominate Texas politics this year. Here’s a look at how things ended on several fronts last year — and where they’re headed next.
The card insinuates that Phelan wants to wish his constituents a happy Ramadan instead of a merry Christmas. Muslim Texans say it’s Islamophobic and some Republicans say it doesn't reflect Christian values.
Tim Dunn has used his wealth to establish a network of organizations that push his ultraconservative views across Texas. The deal comes amid a time of consolidation in the Permian Basin.
Adelson wasted little time reaching out to the state’s business leaders since news of the deal broke, visiting Austin on Thursday to address the Texas Association of Business, the state’s largest business lobby.
In court filings Tuesday, the secretary of state’s office argued that the plaintiffs in the election contests “never served a citation” properly. But there’s no guarantee it’ll work.
Abbott is promising to continue the fight for “school choice” but staying mum on whether that means he will call another special session as he has previously threatened.
The latest casualties were Senate Bill 5, which would spend $800 million on school safety measures through 2025, and Senate Bill 6, which would change the timeline of a trial after an election contest is filed by a citizen or group.
The decision to end work Tuesday leaves long odds for bills to boost school safety funding and make sure that election challenges don’t delay the implementation of property tax cuts, teacher pension raises and infrastructure spending.
Some members of the committee said such a ban, proposed two months after a prominent conservative activist was caught meeting with a famous white supremacist, might be a “slippery slope” or too vague.
Fallon served in the Texas Senate for two years before running for Congress. He won’t see reelection in the U.S. House.
The Senate revved to life Thursday, holding committee hearings with little advance notice and advancing four bills that satisfy Abbott’s agenda.
The $18 billion property tax-cut package is aimed squarely at lowering school district property taxes, which make up the lion’s share of a Texas landowner’s property tax bill.
The governor announced the fourth special session would start an hour after the previous session adjourned.
The Senate on Sunday afternoon failed to take action on a border security bill, leaving virtually no time to pass the bill before the special session ends on Tuesday.
Journalists covering the Texas Capitol discussed what came out of this year’s third special session and what is still to be resolved.
The governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker generally agree on building more border barriers and making illegal border crossings a state crime. But disagreements over strategy and personal animosity mean those measures face long odds this special legislative session.
For the first time in a generation, Texans were more likely to die of gunshot wounds than car crashes in 2021. Experts worry a lack of research on the issue has hampered the search for solutions.
Republicans showed a more clear divide, giving the Senate higher marks than the House for how the attorney general’s impeachment was handled.
While Fuentes’ unapologetic hate mongering has made him one of the nation’s best-known white supremacists, he was merely the latest in a long line of people who have been embraced by Defend Texas Liberty and its close allies.
More than two weeks after the influential PAC’s leader met with a Hitler admirer, Lt. Gov. Patrick said the GOP must ”root out” antisemitism. Patrick had initially said he’d keep the PAC’s money.
The Senate’s Republican bill would let state leaders grow the program by taking money from other agencies without the Legislature’s approval. The House bill would bar the practice.
Luke Macias, a longtime conservative political consultant, is listed as the new president of the conservative PAC on its website. Jonathan Stickland, the former president, met with Fuentes for nearly seven hours.
The group has funded candidates and groups like the Texas GOP who have pushed fellow Republicans to take a harder line against things like illegal immigration and transgender people.
Two other Republican lawmakers are giving away donations after Nick Fuentes was seen visiting the office building associated with Defend Texas Liberty PAC President Jonathan Stickland. The meeting has roiled the party, leading to many Republicans calling on their peers to return money from the PAC.
House Speaker Dade Phelan called on Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and other officials to redirect any money they received from the PAC. Patrick called on Phelan to resign.
The Texas Tribune also observed Texas GOP chair Matt Rinaldi outside the building, but he denied meeting Fuentes and denounced him.
University leaders say the new Hill Institute will promote values like family life, the free and open exercise of faith, and rugged individualism.
Newly released body camera footage shows state Sen. Charles Schwertner’s February arrest for suspicion of drunk driving. Travis County prosecutors dropped the charge in July.
greg-abbott-texas-legislature-school-choice-vouchers This third special session comes as a rift between the Texas House and the Senate grew following Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial, raising questions about the chambers’ ability to compromise on education issues.
On the day the House impeached Ken Paxton, Smithee delivered a 20 minute speech, criticizing the impeachment process as opaque, rushed and unfair to the accused.
On Monday, the former state employees argued that Paxton has failed to uphold key parts of the settlement agreement, including a $3.3 million payment and a promise to apologize.
Houston attorney Dick DeGuerin said his team was naive in its belief that “principle would win out over politics.”
House Speaker Dade Phelan wrote an op-ed for his hometown newspaper, saying the “fix was in from the start,” while other Republican officials are calling for Phelan’s resignation.
The lieutenant governor said that he took just as much from “the other side,” including donors aligned with Texans for Lawsuit Reform, which Paxton has labeled a political enemy.
“I feel there were six senators who were ready to be the 21st vote,” said Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas. “But they didn’t want to be the 20th vote.”
The Texas House and Senate were already far apart on “school choice.” Anger over the impeachment trial might make it even harder to find common ground.
The House impeachment managers faced a high bar: convincing enough Republican senators to vote against their own political self-interest.
