House Speaker Joe Straus has released the interim charges that will direct the work of the lower chamber's legislative committees for the next 11 months — and lawmakers will be busy. 

In addition to each committee's individual directives, Straus asked each committee to consider ways to improve the state's manufacturing capability and increase the "transparency, accountability, and efficiency" in state government. 

Among the charges: 

Straus calls on the Higher Education committee, which spent much of the regular session distracted by a controversy about the productivity of the state's universities and the value of academic research, to examine ...

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