State government

Texas lawmakers want to fix school finance, but they can't avoid looking for voter-pleasing side dishes, like property taxes and teacher pay raises, that could undermine the public education fixes.

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Republican state senators passed a resolution that would declare a crisis at the Texas-Mexico border and request Congress to fully fund border security measures. Democratic senators say they never saw the measure until it hit the floor.

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The bill passed on a 19–12 vote, with one Republican voting against it and one Democrat voting for it. It requires one more approval in the Senate before it heads to the Texas House.

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Activist conservative groups have long been aligned with the lawmakers they helped elect, like Texas House Freedom Caucus members and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Are they still on the same page?

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During the Texas legislative session, the Capitol sees a rush of advocates. Our latest "Under the Dome" episode features two people lobbying on issues they are all too familiar with.

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“The Constitution’s protection of religious liberty is somehow even better than Chick-fil-A’s chicken,” Paxton wrote in a Thursday letter to San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and the rest of the council.

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The vote, called around 1 a.m., was 8-3. The lone Democrat who voted in support of the new measure was state Rep. Ryan Guillen, the vice chair of the committee.

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Rep. Richard Raymond has introduced bills to get rid of the gambling machines for years. This time, he's trying a different approach.

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The groups are targeting two priority bills in the Texas Senate.

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Anti-abortion bills have gathered steam in the upper chamber — including a proposal to limit local funding for abortion providers and another to protect infants born alive after an abortion.

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The House also signed off on a $9 billion supplemental budget that would withdraw $4.3 billion from the state savings account.

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The backlog — exacerbated by the state's switch in January to a new computer system for processing records — comes as the short-staffed Texas Department of State Health Services vies for a boost in funding. Meanwhile, families anxiously wait.

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House members have proposed more than 300 amendments to the chamber's spending plan. The proposals that pass could have major implications for hundreds of other issues regulated by the state.

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The House Ways & Means Committee is expected to vote on the bill Wednesday.

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Texas added Airbnb to a short list of companies that can’t receive state money because they boycott Israel, though Airbnb says it does not. Now, employees at the University of Texas at Austin can no longer stay in Airbnbs while on school business.

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Disability advocates want the Texas Legislature to invest in pay raises for home care workers. Even in a year of surplus, it's a difficult battle.

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Lawmakers were alerted that a page on the House floor had the infection, triggering discussions about vaccine policies in the state.

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"This is Harris County!" declared a bevy of colorful signs at a campaign rally Saturday for the California Democrat. Harris has made clear she plans to cede no ground to Democratic rivals who hail from the Lone Star State.

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In the latest episode of our podcast about the 86th Legislature, Evan Smith talks to House members Mary Gonzalez, Sarah Davis and Toni Rose about gender, politics and public policy in a state where the population is majority female but elected officials are overwhelmingly male.

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Issues like city-mandated paid sick leave and "red flag" gun laws are popular among Texas voters, polls suggest. Will opposing them have consequences in 2020?

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