The latest Dade Phelan news from The Texas Tribune.
Lawmakers say they need the latest pregnancy-related death data to more precisely address the problem during the legislative session. But delays means they won’t see it until after the session ends. Full Story
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Almost half the money is going toward bullet-resistant shields for school police officers, a move that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called on fellow state leaders to support. Full Story
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After the May 24 school shooting, mental health help is now pouring into Uvalde, where a fourth of residents are uninsured and counseling options are few and far between. Full Story
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Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick had asked House leaders to support his push for arming school police officers with bulletproof shields after the Uvalde shooting. House Speaker Dade Phelan is also asking for more money for mental health and school safety programs. Full Story
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Patrick said he wants police in as many Texas schools as possible to have bulletproof shields before the fall. He’s asked other state leaders to move around money in the state budget to make it happen. Full Story
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Phelan said it is an “outrage” that officials still do not have a clear picture of what happened during the shooting. The committee’s findings will inform the House’s legislative response. Full Story
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The pricey fights illustrate how much of the action in Texas politics has shifted back to the primary after redistricting dramatically reduced the number of competitive seats. Full Story
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Abbott said he supports giving parents the option to attend private school “with state funding following the student.” Such measures have failed in the Legislature in the past. Full Story
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Almost all the preferred candidates of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan nabbed enough votes to head into the November general election. And nearly all sitting House and Senate members seeking to return to the Texas Capitol kept their seats. Full Story
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The new Texas Sands PAC has already spread over half a million dollars across roughly three dozen primaries for the state House and Senate. Full Story
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The primaries are also the first major electoral test for House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, who took over the gavel more than a year ago. Full Story
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Legislative leaders overseeing the Texas Military Department say they are looking into reports of suicides, habitual pay problems and poor working conditions on Gov. Greg Abbott's highly touted border mission. Full Story
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The Rio Grande City lawmaker was the least liberal Democrat in the Texas House this year, according to a political scientist’s rankings of lawmakers. Full Story
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Gov. Greg Abbott’s office says there’s no plan for a fourth special session at this time. If this was the final special session of the year, what did we learn from it? Full Story
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If voters approve the measure next year, it will raise the state’s homestead exemption from $25,000 to $40,000 for school district property taxes, netting the average homeowner about $176 in savings. Full Story
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Three times this year — in the regular session and in two subsequent special sessions — legislation targeting transgender student athletes sailed through the Senate only to falter in the House. Full Story
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Lawmakers will return to Austin at least one more time this year to redraw the state's political maps. Only Gov. Greg Abbott knows when that will be and if there will be additional special sessions beyond that. Full Story
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Navigating the quorum break, Speaker Dade Phelan said he was especially mindful of not doing “un-repairable harm” to the chamber, indicating that could have happened if members were physically detained and brought to the chamber. Full Story
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After a standoff that lasted more than a month, the Texas House appears to have enough state representatives in Austin to conduct business. The divisions are deep, relationships are frayed and redistricting lies ahead. Full Story
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As of Wednesday, there were no known cases of absent Democrats being arrested, and the chamber was still shy of the 100 members it needs for a quorum to conduct official business. That is despite its Aug. 10 vote to proceed with the arrests. Full Story
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