Bills by the handful perish as Texas House hits crucial late-session deadline
It was a night of frustration, retaliation and, for some, elation as the stroke of midnight spelled doom for a lot of legislation. Full Story
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Karen Brooks Harper
Health and Human Services Reporter
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Karen Brooks Harper reports on the state budget and health and human services. An alumna of the University of Missouri-Columbia Journalism School, Karen arrived in Texas in 1995 to join the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, spent several years in Laredo and Mexico covering immigration and the drug war for Knight-Ridder newspapers, and has covered Texas politics for more than two decades for news organizations including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Dallas Morning News and Reuters.
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![House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, surveys the chamber during a break in the action on deadline day May 11, 2023.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Texas House passes sweeping border funding bill, guts proposed policing unit
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle threw their support behind a new requirement that the unit use only commissioned peace officers for enforcement actions. Full Story
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![Department of Public Safety agents arrest an undocumented migrant for trespassing private property as part of Operation Lone Star in Kinney County near Brackettville, Texas on Nov. 9, 2021.
Verónica G. Cárdenas for ProPublica/The Texas Tribune]()
Credit: Verónica G. Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune/ProPublica -
Lawmakers consider long-shot $2.3 billion proposal to keep struggling child care providers afloat
Three years after the COVID-19 pandemic upset the fragile child care industry, about a third of the state’s child care providers remain closed. Full Story
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![Childcare providers and families in Texas joined the nationwide “Day Without Child Care,” rallying for greater investment in daycare and early education, at the south steps of the Capitol on May 8, 2023.]()
Credit: Leila Saidane/The Texas Tribune -
New economic incentive plan clears hurdle in Texas House
During the floor debate for a plan to replace the expired Chapter 313 program, House members added that the new version of the incentive must require companies to pay higher wages and create stiffer penalties for noncompliance. Full Story
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![A drilling rig in Pecos County on Feb. 4, 2023.]()
Credit: Pu Ying Huang/The Texas Tribune -
Protesters decry stalled fentanyl test strip bill; Texas House passes get-tough criminal penalties
Stuck in committee, the test-strip legislation has support from Gov. Greg Abbott and bipartisan lawmakers, who see it as a way to save lives. Full Story
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![State Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on April 3, 2019.]()
Credit: Emree Weaver/The Texas Tribune -
Texas Senate passes $308 billion budget plan, kicking off high-stakes negotiations with the House
There are $5 billion and several political wedges standing between the House and Senate plans, which now move into conference committee with less than five weeks before session ends. Full Story
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![Lt. Governor Dan Patrick presides over the Senate at the Capitol in Austin on April 06, 2023.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Senate budget panel approves $308 billion spending plan with new money for teachers, mental health, juvenile justice
The proposal for the 2024-25 budget cycle includes $142.1 billion in general revenue spending — about $5 billion higher than the proposal approved last week by the Texas House — at a time when lawmakers have a historic $32.7 billion surplus at their disposal this session. Full Story
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![State Capitol in the late afternoon on June 12, 2017.]()
Credit: Austin Price for The Texas Tribune -
Expanded access to medical marijuana gains traction as Texas House passes bill
The bipartisan legislation is an expansion on the state’s 2015 “Compassionate Use” law, which has allowed a growing number of patients to legally use cannabis to treat debilitating symptoms of conditions such as epilepsy, autism, cancer and PTSD. Full Story
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![An engineer at Texas Original Compassionate Cultivation in South Austin tests for impurities on April 30, 2021.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Texas House approves $302.6 billion state budget with tax cuts and teacher and state employee raises
After a marathon debate, the bill will head to the Senate, where lawmakers have been crafting their own version of the spending plan. Full Story
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![State Rep. Mihaela Plesa, D-Dallas, rushes to the front of the House floor during budget discussions at the state Capitol on April 6, 2023.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune -
Budget day in the House: Texas lawmakers keep anti-DEI proposal
House Bill 1 is being debated on the floor of the lower chamber, where representatives are hammering out details on the next two years of state spending. Full Story
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![Lawmakers gather around House Parliamentarian Sharon Carter during budget discussions on the House floor of the state Capitol in Austin on April 6, 2023.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune