Politics

Supporters of the bill say it would expand ballot access. But some critics argue that the real goal is to make it tougher for Libertarians to get on the ballot and easier for Green Party candidates to do so.

What started as a sweeping religious refusals bill has been significantly watered down as it moves through the Texas Legislature. But LGBTQ advocates still fiercely oppose it, saying it perpetuates hateful rhetoric.

Lawmakers filed thousands of bills during the 2019 legislative session. Here's how the big bills fared.

After final Senate approval, the bill will head back to the House, where members will decide whether to accept the changes made in the Senate.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has expressed wariness to expanding the Compassionate Use Program, but the bill's Senate sponsor said Patrick helped craft the version that cleared a key hurdle Friday.

As lawmakers in Austin work to pass a sweeping school safety bill, many Santa Fe survivors and their loved ones say they’re focused less on what’s happening at the Capitol and more on what can be done to rebuild and uplift their community.

Texas lawmakers are wrangling over changes to election law that — depending on your allegiance — would make elections more secure or suppress voting among groups that favor Democrats, the political minority in Texas. The fight's not about you — it's about them.

The measure moved quickly through the Senate after the LGBTQ Caucus killed a near-identical proposal on a procedural motion last week in the Texas House.

House Bill 1325 would legalize hemp and hemp-derived extracts like CBD oil as long as they contain no more than 0.3% of tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive element in marijuana known as THC.

The House Elections Committee on Wednesday night resumed its discussions on a controversial bill pitched as an election security measure but that critics say is a pathway to state-sanctioned voter suppression.

The announcement Tuesday from Comptroller Glenn Hegar came amid lawmakers' closed-door haggling over the two-year budget, which includes funds for public schools and property tax relief.

Two months in to his presidential bid — and no longer flying high — the former El Paso congressman is making clear he needs to do more to take his message national.

Jones, a former Air Force intelligence officer, lost to Hurd last year by a razor-thin margin.

When weighing in on issues like property taxes, the main interest group representing cities has encountered skepticism.

Once knocked as detached, the governor has become more involved in a legislative session hinging on two big-ticket items he's prioritized: school finance and property tax reform.

A measure to limit arrests for misdemeanors that only result in fines initially got House approval. Then it failed on a subsequent vote amid what some say was confusion over what the bill would do. Lawmakers tried to revive it Friday evening — after several lawmakers had left the chamber — but that attempt also failed.

Legislation swapping higher sales taxes for lower property taxes flopped this week, and for lawmakers, it flopped in the best way possible: They never had to cast a vote.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill weeks after a federal judge blocked the existing state law in response to a lawsuit.

On this week’s TribCast, Aman talks to Ross, Matthew and Shannon about how Texas lawmakers' plan to raise the sales tax collapsed, why the 2019 session is like the 1997 one and what we'll be watching out for in the session’s final three weeks.

The measure aims to prohibit caller ID spoofing — when callers tamper with information transmitted to people’s phones to disguise their identities.