House members issue demand for Senate action
Members of the Texas House on Tuesday issued a loud demand for the Senate to take action on their bills — or else. Full Story
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![State Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, gives closing arguments on House Bill 122, which would raise the age of criminal responsibility in Texas from 17 to 18. The House passed the bill 92-52 on April 20, 2017.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Lawmaker announces donation page to address “lunch shaming”
Rep. Helen Giddings announced the launch of a donation page that allows the public to contribute money to clear the debt of schools that feed schoolchildren when their lunch accounts are empty. Full Story
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![State Rep. Helen Giddings, D-De Soto, speaks during a press conference regarding the "lunch shaming" bill on May 23, 2017.]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune -
Scientists wary as Texas mulls allowing sale of unproven drugs
Supporters of House Bill 3236 say it could get experimental drugs into terminally ill patients’ hands, but its detractors say it would encourage snake oil salesmen. Full Story
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Credit: Reynaldo Leal -
School groups say House bathroom amendment open to interpretations
School groups say a Texas House amendment addressing bathroom use is open to interpretations on whether it actually keeps school districts from allowing transgender students to use bathrooms that match their gender identities. Full Story
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![Bathroom stalls at the Austin Convention Center in 2017.]()
Credit: Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune -
Senate backs making child welfare department an independent agency
Texas senators unanimously approved a bill that would make the Department of Family and Protective Services its own standalone department. Full Story
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![Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Hank Whitman testifies July 12, 2016, to the House Committee on Human Services about his plans to reform the agency.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Texas business leaders stayed neutral on "bathroom" amendment
Pro-business forces, which had for months warned that a "bathroom bill" could be disastrous for the state's bottom line, held their fire during Sunday's debate over a bill amendment dealing with the controversial issue. Full Story
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![Representatives look at the board as a vote is taken on a bill amendment that would require schools to provide single-stall restrooms, locker rooms and changing facilities to students who don't want to use facilities designated by “biological sex" at the state Capitol on Sunday, May 21, 2017.]()
Credit: Laura Skelding for The Texas Tribune -
El Paso County files lawsuit seeking to halt Texas "sanctuary" law
A lawsuit in federal court charges that Senate Bill 4, if enacted, would violate several provisions of the U.S. Constitution. Full Story
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![Monserrat Garibay of Education Austin speaks in front of the Texas Governor's Mansion on May 8, 2017, after Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 4, known as the "sanctuary cities" bill, the night before.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Texas Senate approves monthly payments for relative caregivers of abused children
Texas senators voted unanimously on Monday to increase money given to kinship care families. Full Story
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Credit: Elizabeth Ann Colette/Wikimedia Commons -
Dan Patrick unconvinced by House action on bathrooms, property taxes
After threatening to force a special session of the Legislature unless lawmakers approve a "bathroom bill" and property tax legislation, Lt. Gov Dan Patrick on Monday appeared to be unconvinced by the House's actions on the two issues. Full Story
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![House Speaker Joe Straus and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick at a Texas Legislative Budget Board meeting on December 1, 2016.]()
Credit: Laura Skelding for the Texas Tribune -
Texas House passes bill extending alternative high school graduation route
The Texas House on Monday passed a bill extending a program that lets students who fail a couple of required exams take an alternative route to graduation. Full Story
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![State Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Houston, discusses a bill in the Texas House on May 3, 2017.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Senate passes "second chances" bill for nonviolent offenders
The Texas Senate has approved its version of House Bill 3016, which would make it easier for people to apply for jobs if they have low-level offenses on their records. Such applicants would not be required to disclose their offenses. Full Story
Credit: Bob Daemmrich -
Texas Senate puts voucher-like program in school finance bill
The Texas Senate voted to approve a bill that would simplify funding formulas for public schools and let parents use state money to send their kids with disabilities to private schools or pay for homeschooling. Full Story
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![State Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, discusses a bill amendment in the Senate on March 30, 2017.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Analysis: A legislative session ending on the lieutenant governor’s terms
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has put the clock to his advantage. With a week to go in the regular legislative session, his threat of pushing lawmakers into overtime if he doesn’t get his way on pet issues is paying off. Full Story
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![Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick confers with State Sens. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, Royce West, D-Dallas, on March 14, 2017.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for the Texas Tribune -
When UT denied this valedictorian, she got it to change admissions rules
Madison Mau is valedictorian of her tiny high school's senior class, but the University of Texas denied her anyway. Unwilling to accept that result, she lobbied the school to change its admissions policy. Full Story
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![Madison Mau, valedictorian of a rural school between Houston and Austin, successfully fought her denial from the University of Texas at Austin.]()
Credit: Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune -
Effort to overhaul Texas voter ID rules survives — for now
A flurry of legislative activity Sunday night gave life to efforts to overhaul the Texas’ voter identification law, a change that's crucial to the state’s arguments over whether lawmakers disenfranchised minority voters. Full Story
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![Voters line up outside the Oak Cliff Sub-Courthouse in Dallas, Texas, for the first day of early voting on Monday, Oct. 24, 2016.]()
Credit: Laura Buckman for The Texas Tribune -
Senate passes religious protections for child welfare agencies
Texas state senators voted to allow child welfare providers to be protected from legal retaliation if they assert their “sincerely held religious beliefs.” Full Story
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![A father holds his child in a public health clinic outside of McAllen, Texas.]()
Credit: Callie Richmond -
Texas House approves bathroom restrictions for transgender students
The Texas House voted to require schools to provide single-stall restrooms, locker rooms and changing facilities to students who don't want to use facilities designated by “biological sex.” Full Story
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![During a debate on the "bathroom bill," state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, holds up a photo of a sign that reads, "RESTROOMS WHITE COLORED," on May 21, 2017.]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune -
Abbott, Patrick: More work needed as special session threat looms
Gov. Greg Abbott says he's optimistic that lawmakers can avoid a special session. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wants the "bathroom bill" passed or he'll keep pushing for one. Full Story
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Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera -
Budget compromise taps Rainy Day Fund, transportation funding
Lawmakers, scrounging for cash in a tight-fisted legislative session, agreed to dip into the state’s savings account and to make use of an accounting trick using funds set aside last session for highway projects. Full Story
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![The Texas Legislative Budget Board, including House Speaker Joe Straus, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state Sen. Jane Nelson, on Dec. 1, 2016.]()
Credit: Laura Skelding for The Texas Tribune -
Texas Republicans fear federal oversight as voter ID overhaul stalls
Republicans fear a failure to overhaul strict Texas voter ID rules could torpedo the state's position in litigation over whether lawmakers discriminated against minority voters. Full Story
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![Attorney General Ken Paxton and Solicitor General Scott Keller after oral arguments on the voter ID case before the U.S. 5th Circuit of Appeals in New Orleans on May 24, 2016.]()
Credit: Cheryl Gerber for The Texas Tribune
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