UPDATED: Senate Finance Chair Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, has laid out House Bill 1025 in the upper chamber, a crucial part of a broader budget deal agreed to last week.

The Senate approved an extension of the University of Texas at Austin's cap on automatic admissions under the state's top 10 percent rule on Tuesday, and members rejected efforts to do away with the rule entirely.

The Senate Nominations Committee unanimously voted Tuesday to approve Gov. Rick Perry's three nominees to the University of Texas System Board of Regents. The nominees must still be confirmed by the full Senate.

After days of negotiations, House and Senate representatives agreed to a budget plan that would add roughly $4 billion in extra funding for public education. It also paves the way for a $2 billion fund for water infrastructure projects.

UPDATED: Half a day after Senate budget leaders said the contours of a budget deal were in place, confusion and uncertainty reigned in the Capitol as key negotiators argued over competing proposals.

UPDATED: Friday morning's clash between the House and Senate appears to be water under the bridge. Lawmakers in the upper chamber said it was a tussle over a local Houston matter — but that they're working to resolve it.

Texas’ drought and water-supply problems have captured headlines. But with the state’s rapid population growth projected to continue, other infrastructure problems also loom, including clogged roads and a strained power grid.

UPDATED: The cancellation of two key committee hearings Thursday put into clear focus that budget negotiations, believed to be nearly done just two days earlier, remained ongoing.

House Bill 500, the Legislature's most sweeping attempt at reforming the franchise tax this session, was drastically rewritten Thursday morning by its Senate sponsor, state Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy.

In this session's ethics battles, watchdogs say there’s more contradiction than conviction. 

UPDATED: Budget negotiations stretched late into the evening on Wednesday, but lawmakers said privately they didn’t expect to announce a deal until Thursday. 

With less than two weeks before the end of the 83rd legislative session, efforts to find more funding for the Texas Department of Transportation are sputtering.

State lawmakers would spend $3.2 billion for public education and $2 billion for water funding under plans being worked out by budget leaders, House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts said Tuesday.

Tax relief has become a key issue in the final weeks of the legislative session, and nearly all of the relief efforts are focused on the franchise tax paid by businesses. Use our interactive to track the status of those bills.

State budget leaders adopted unified proposals for several areas of the budget on Monday morning but said they are still working on the two largest pieces: education and health and human services.