Agencies
Screwworm Response Sets Up $29.4M Budget Ask as Lawmakers Question Feral Hog Spending
A $29.4 million request to staff a permanent defense against screwworm and fever ticks now tops the Texas Animal Health Commission's budget wish list.
Latest in Interim Hearings
Government Transparency
Austin Mayor Defends Outside Contracts as Lawmakers Weigh Statewide Disclosure of City Grants
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson told a House committee Sept. 30 that the city spends about $100 million a year on outside consultants and nonprofits and is auditing it.
Health Care
Insurers Tell House Panel Texas Regulated Its Own Health Market ‘Out of Existence’
Texas health insurers told a House committee Sept. 1 that state regulations have contributed to employers moving away from the fully insured market.
Data Centers
County Judges Tell Senators They Have ‘No Authority’ Over Data Centers as Industry Pledges Millions
Three data center companies told a Senate committee Sept. 1 that they cool without fresh water and will pay for rural pipelines.
Economy
Nearly Four in Ten Texas Homesteads Now Pay No School Property Tax, Bettencourt’s County Survey Finds
The state has never published how many Texas homeowners pay nothing in school property tax.
Agencies
Providers Say Texas Cut Child Care Slots While 100,000 Families Wait
The Texas Workforce Commission spent the first hour of a House hearing Aug. 26 describing a child care program that serves 117,000 families.
Agencies
House Transportation Funding Panel to Weigh Formula Money, Rural Road Grants in Corpus Christi
The Texas House Subcommittee on Transportation Funding will gavel in at 10 a.m. Sept. 2 at the Solomon P. Ortiz Center in Corpus Christi to take invited and public testimony on how the Texas Department of Transportation divides its money and whether the state raises enough of it.
Interim Hearings
Senate Water Panel to Study Pecos Basin Decline, Red Bluff Governance and Produced-Water Reuse
The Texas Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture and Rural Affairs will gavel in at 9 a.m. Sept. 2 to take invited and public testimony on a single interim charge covering the Pecos River Basin: falling flows, the interstate compact that governs them, the 1930s special district that stores the water, and the treated oilfield wastewater that companies want to put into the river.
Economy
Providers Say Texas Cut Child Care Slots While 100,000 Families Wait
The Texas Workforce Commission spent the first hour of a House hearing Aug. 26 describing a child care program that serves 117,000 families.
Economy
Senate Economic Development Panel to Weigh Hotel-Tax Accountability, Project Finance Zones, AI Jobs
The Texas Senate Committee on Economic Development will gavel in at 9 a.m. Sept. 3 to take testimony on three interim charges: how Texas cities collect, report and spend hotel occupancy tax revenue; whether the Legislature should approve each new project finance zone individually; and what artificial intelligence is doing to the state's labor market.
Government Transparency
Counties Call the Public Information Act Weaponized; Transparency Groups Call It Toothless
Texas issued more than 45,000 open-records rulings last year and is on pace to beat that by 10 percent.
Government Transparency
House Panel Presses Barbers Hill on $97 Million Routed to Its Education Foundation
A Texas school district moved roughly $97 million into a private charity it helped create, and on Aug. 26 a House committee spent four and a half hours trying to establish who is allowed to look at it.
Health Care
Texas Veteran Peer Network Has Run on Flat Funding for 13 Years
Texas pays 56 peer service coordinators to reach veterans in crisis across 254 counties.
Housing
Senate Local Government Panel to Review 2025 Housing Laws, Weigh Audits of Local Fees
The Texas Senate Committee on Local Government will gavel in at 9 a.m. Sept. 2 to hear invited testimony on whether the housing laws the Legislature passed last year are working, and on whether the fees Texas cities and counties collect get enough scrutiny.