Larry Phillips

If state Rep. Larry Phillips gets his way, the Sunset Advisory Commission could be up for the sort of operational review it's used to dishing out to other state agencies — forcing the agency to justify its existence.

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On 4/10, I talked about the future of transportation policy in Texas with Deirdre Delisi, former chair of the Texas Transportation Commission; Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins; former U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk; and state Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman. 

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UPDATED: After a technical error caused the Texas House to delay its debate on open carry legislation Tuesday, the legislation is now cleared to go back to the full House floor on Friday.

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Chances are good for passage of legislation up for debate in the House today that would allow for open carry of handguns by those already with concealed carry licenses.

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Agents with the FBI have spoken with Health and Human Services Commission about the troubled no-bid software contract with technology firm 21CT.

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House Speaker Joe Straus leaned toward the familiar in filling open spots at the top of the chamber's top-tier committees.

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UPDATED: Gov. Rick Perry, who had missed a legislative deadline for making his appointments to the Red River Boundary Commission, announced his picks for the five-person panel on Friday.

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At the Trib's Oct. 17 symposium on transportation at Southern Methodist University, I sat down with four members of the House Transportation Committee: Chairman Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, and state Reps. Cindy Burkett, R-Sunnyvale, Linda Harper-Brown, R-Irving, and Joe Pickett, D-El Paso. 

 

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We're liveblogging this weekend from The Texas Tribune Festival's Transportation track, which features panel discussions on planning, high-speed rail, road funding and rural transportation. 

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On the latest Agenda Texas, from KUT News and the Tribune: Lawmakers want to spend billions to repair the state's crumbling roads, but that's putting some Republican leaders in a bind.

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With less than two months left in the legislative session, some lawmakers are lowering expectations on what can get done related to funding for roads. 

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Full video of Aman Batheja's 4/4 TribLive conversation with state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, and state Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman. 

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At Thursday's TribLive conversation, state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, and state Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, talked about a proposal to use vehicle sales tax revenue to meet our transportation funding needs.

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At Thursday's TribLive conversation, state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, and state Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, talked about whether Texans are having “toll road fatigue” and the impact that toll roads are having on traffic congestion.

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Gov. Rick Perry is not going down without a fight. He spent his last full day on the campaign trail in Iowa throwing furious punches at his rivals, rallying his Texas “posse” for support and pleading with voters to look past polls showing him in fifth place here.

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State Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, is a widely liked Republican chairman with a supermajority to back him up. So why has his signature education bill this session, a mandate relief package for school districts, stumbled so badly? 

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Lawmakers in the House took a second swing at state Rep. Rob Eissler's school mandate relief bill late Friday night. And once again, they whiffed.

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There are 101 Republicans in the Texas House. But according to the map released by Redistricting Committee Chair Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, not all of them will get re-elected.

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A bill from state Rep. Rob Eissler modifying how end-of-course exams factor into graduation led House Republicans into a debate over how best to handle student testing during what one called "extraordinary times" in public education.

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Creative industries — from advertising to dance companies to book publishing — generate $4.5 billion per year in economic activity for Texas, according to a new report released by the Texas Cultural Trust in association with the Texas Commission on the Arts. The report features projects in communities like Amarillo, El Paso, Rockport, Texarkana and the tiny, north central Texas town of Clifton, population 3,795. “It’s more than fluff,” says Amy Barbee, the Trust's executive director. “We want to tell the story that the arts truly are economic development.”

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