Here’s a quick recap of what happened over the last week:
House Committees Appointed
Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows finally released committee assignments for the session. As expected, his early supporters received the key chairmanships, including Rep. Todd Hunter – Calendars, Rep. Ken King – State Affairs, Rep. Morgan Meyer – Ways and Means and Rep. Charlie Geren – Administration. All standing committee chairs are Republicans, as the House changed their rules this session to allow only the party in power to chair committees.
A full list of the committees can be found here:
Speaker Commits to Supporting Vouchers
With the early session passage of the private school voucher legislation in the Senate, the focus is now on the Texas House, where the voucher legislation has died in every regular and special session since 2021. President Trump took to social media over the weekend to say, “The Texas House must pass school choice to deliver a gigantic victory for students and parents…” and went on to say he will be “watching closely”. In response, Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows had the simple response, “We will.”
Both House and Senate versions of the proposed state budgets allocate $1 billion for the educations savings accounts that would be established in the version passed by the Senate. The House is expected to introduce their version of a school choice/voucher bill in the coming weeks.
Senate Passes Property Tax Relief
Yesterday, the Texas Senate voted unanimously to increase the homestead exemption, allowing homeowners to deduct $140,000 from the appraised value of their home. That is an increase from the current $100,000 deduction. Under the proposal, homeowners would realize a savings of nearly $500 annually if the proposal passes the House. Many residents would now be able to basically pay nothing in public school property taxes since 49% of the state’s school districts have an average home value of less than $140,000. The bill also requires the state to pay school districts for any lost tax revenue from the exemption increase. In total, the proposals will cost the state $23 billion annually to fund local property tax cuts and cover the lost revenue to the school districts.
Bail Reform Clears Committee
The Senate Criminal Justice Committee advanced a package of bills this week that aim to keep more violent defendants behind bars instead of being released on bail. The bills establish a list of crimes for which defendants may not be released on cash or personal bonds. The new list of offenses includes terroristic threats, offenses involving illegal possession of a firearm, violation of a protective order, or murder as a result of dealing or delivering fentanyl. Part of the package also includes prohibiting judges from awarding bail to undocumented immigrants charged with a felony. This is response to the murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray who was murdered in Houston last summer. Two men who entered the country illegally from Venezuela have been charged with the crime.
The package of bills will now head to the full Senate for consideration, where they will have the support to pass. The bills are an emergency items, granted that status by Governor Abbott. Lt. Governor Dan Patrick has made this issue a priority for the Senate and said he has met with House Speaker Dustin Burrows to relay his strong feelings on the measures, going as far to say that if these bills do not pass in the regular session, the legislature should stay in special session until they do pass.
Conservative Priorities Introduced
Members still have until Friday, March 14th to file legislation, and many of the more conservative priorities are starting to be filed in legislative form.
Senate Bill 10 has been filed to require all public elementary and secondary schools to display the Ten Commandments in a “conspicuous place in each classroom”. This is a priority of Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and follows the recently passed law in Louisiana that made the same requirement. Initially blocked by a federal judge, the Louisiana Attorney General has said schools can still comply with the law while the lawsuit plays out.
Senate Bill 11 – another priority of the Lt. Governor – permits all public and charter schools to adopt policies “to provide students and employees the opportunity to participate in a period of prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious text on each school day”. Precedent for this was set with a 2022 US Supreme Court case that sided with a high school football coach that was fired for post-game prayers on the field.
On the House side, House Bill 2599 was filed to prohibit state agencies from using state money to advertise or donate to any news site or periodical that relies on advertising revenue or memberships. This is in response to recent reports that news publication Politico received nearly $8 million in federal funding. Going further, House Bill 2600 prohibits state agencies from purchasing periodicals or supporting the news media with public funds. Exceptions are made for libraries and museums, and for legislators buying a subscription to a purely local newspaper.
House Bill 2572 prohibits public libraries from using taxpayer funds to become a member of the American Library Association or attend ALA conferences. The ALA has been accused of having left-leaning political views and promoting inappropriate content in public libraries.
Part of Texas Social Media Law Overturned
A federal judge in Austin has overturned parts of the recently passed law that attempts to limit minors access to digital platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and SnapChat. House Bill 18, passed in 2023 by the Texas legislature, requires social media platforms and websites to protect minors from harmful content by prohibiting access by minors to certain content including harassment, substance abuse, and grooming. According to federal Judge Robert Pittman, the law is too vague and fails to appropriately define these terms that could lead to the state arbitrarily discriminating against the companies when enforcing the law.
The members of the legislature defend the law by saying overexposure to digital platforms leads to increased rates of self-harm, suicide, substance abuse, and sexual exploitation that includes human trafficking.
The ruling was in response to a lawsuit brought by Students Engaged in Advancing Texas and the Foundation for Individual Rights on behalf of three minors that said the limitation of access blocks important content for school research projects. This is the second time Judge Pittman has struck down portions of the law. In September of 2024, he ruled that the “monitoring and filtering” portions of the law are unconstitutional because of the vagueness of the law’s definitions.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has already filed an appeal to both of Judge Pittman’s rulings with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Gulf of America
This week, Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Bing updated the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, following an executive order from President Trump mandating the change in the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
The update immediately sparked widespread backlash, with many users reporting the name as inaccurate. In response to the surge of complaints, Google admitted to disabling its suggested edits and complaints system while also removing negative reviews.
Google now faces a potential civil lawsuit from Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum, who argues that the name update should only be applicable to the continental US territory.
Border News
On Wednesday, Governor Greg Abbott returned to the nation’s capital for a second attempt to negotiate with lawmakers regarding the reimbursement of $11 billion in state expenditures on border security operations. The meeting was with Republican members of the Texas Congressional delegation, who claim to be unified in the effort to see Texas is reimbursed for their costs.
The request is for reimbursement for costs associated with Operation Lone Star – the state’s border enforcement initiative that ordered the deployment of state troopers and Texas National Guard soldiers to the border, installed buoys in the Rio Grande, and constructed razor wire barriers. These measures were implemented in response to Governor Abbott’s criticism of the Biden administration’s approach to a lax border security effort.
Over the past four years, Governor Abbott has asserted that Texas has spent $11.1 billion on border security and is seeking federal reimbursement. He has now met with the Speaker of the House for two consecutive weeks to discuss the matter. Despite lawmakers prioritizing federal budget constraints, Governor Abbott has expressed confidence in securing the requested funds.
Also during the trip, Abbott said he was prepared to hand over to the federal government 50 miles of constructed border wall (the Texas border with Mexico is 1,250 miles), 20 miles of planned border wall, 100 miles of easements to build more of the wall, 2,000 beds for use by the National Guard troops, and 4,000 jail cells to detain migrants.
And speaking of border enforcement, since President Trump took office, the crackdown on undocumented migrants along with shutting the door on asylum seekers has led to illegal crossings falling to their lowest level in years. A recent report by the New York Times detailed some of the numbers. A shelter in McAllen now only has nine occupants, compared to 97 three weeks ago. A shelter run by Catholic Charities in San Antonio is planning to close its doors due to lack of new arrivals. Overall, apprehensions are down 91% compared to one year ago. For example, in Tucson – one of the busiest sections of the border – there were only 22 apprehensions per day last week, compared to 1,200 total during the last week of January.
Political Notes
Attorney General Ken Paxton appeared on the Tucker Carlson show this week and once again addressed the possibility of challenging incumbent US Senator John Cornyn in next year’s Republican primary. Paxton pointed out that Cornyn has never had a serious primary challenge and then went on to question Cornyn’s conservative credentials. He said Cornyn has been “vacant” on the issue of border security and that “somebody needs to step up and run against this guy.”
Final fundraising figures are in from the 2024 race for the US Senate and the numbers are staggering. Incumbent US Senator Ted Cruz and Democratic challenger Colin Allred collectively raised $192 million for the race, making it the most expensive US Senate contest in the country. All total, Allred raised just under $100 million, about $7 million more than the $92.5 million raised by Cruz. In the end, Allred’s massive haul was not enough as Cruz easily won a 3rd term by a 53% to 44% margin.
With President Trump winning Webb County – the first time a Republican Presidential candidate won the south Texas county since 1912 – rumors have circulated that Laredo House member, Democrat Richard Raymond, is considering a switch to the Republican Party. Raymond put those rumors to rest this week when he appeared on a conservative podcast to say he was not switching parties. Raymond did acknowledge that there were some in the community that had asked him about a party switch, but that was remaining with the Democrats.
What’s Next??
The Senate has adjourned until 11AM Tuesday. They are scheduled to take up the bail reform measures next week.
The House is adjourned until Tuesday at 2PM.