Transgender students would be prevented from joining public school and university sports teams that correspond to their gender.
Texas Legislature 2021
The 87th Texas Legislature approved hundreds of new laws during its regular session that ended in May 2021, including a near-total ban on abortions. Lawmakers then returned to Austin for three special sessions aimed at passing additional conservative priorities. Although House Democrats fled the state for weeks, lawmakers eventually passed new voting restrictions. They also approved new political maps and a proposed constitutional amendment that could lower property tax bills.
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Texas Legislature 2021
Behind the partisan drama lies a profoundly serious struggle over who gets shut out under Texas voting laws
Whose voices will be heard in Texas halls of power? That question beats at the heart of the Democratic quorum break that has brought the Legislature to a halt and focused national attention on GOP efforts to make voting in Texas harder.
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Texas Legislature 2021
What it means to break quorum and what you need to know about the Texas House Democrats’ dramatic departure
Democrats are preventing the Texas House from having enough members to pass legislation. We explain what that means, what options Republicans have and what’s in the voting bills Democrats oppose.
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Texas Legislature 2021
Live updates: Vice President Kamala Harris meets with Democratic Texas lawmakers opposing voting restrictions legislation
Here are the latest updates on the Texas Democrats leaving Texas to block the special legislative session and a GOP voting restrictions bill.
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Texas Legislature 2021
Senate presses forward passing GOP voting and bail bills, as Texas House in chaos over Democrats’ decampment
If the House Democrats who skipped town to block voting legislation don’t return before the special session ends, the Senate bills will languish without becoming law.
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Texas Abortion Restrictions
Twenty abortion providers sue Texas officials over law that bans abortions as early as six weeks
The law is set to take effect Sept. 1.
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Texas Legislature 2021
Analysis: Texas legislators are fighting ferociously — and for voters’ attention
Texas lawmakers are battling over voting laws — pushing people into late hearings and walking out on the proceedings in Austin — and hoping their voters will appreciate the ferocity.
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Texas Legislature 2021
Texas House Republicans vote to track down absent Democrats and arrest them if necessary
The procedural move carries little apparent weight since the Democrats who fled the state to break quorum are beyond the jurisdiction of Texas law enforcement.
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Texas Legislature 2021
To block voting legislation, Democrats put bail bills, legislative funding and other measures in peril
Conservative priorities to restrict pretrial release from jail and ban critical race theory in schools were up in the air after Democratic lawmakers chartered flights to Washington, D.C. But so was funding for retired teachers and legislative employees.
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Texas Legislature 2021
Texas Democrats land in Washington, D.C., and promise to stay out of Texas until after special legislative session ends Aug. 6
Texas Democrats said they are urging Congress again to pass federal voting laws, acknowledging that Gov. Greg Abbott would continue to call special sessions until the GOP elections bill was passed.