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.
Agencies
No Texas Law Makes a Driverless Car Company Report a Fatal Crash
Texas made itself the gatekeeper for driverless commercial vehicles last year.
Cost of Living
Sheriffs and Constables Tell Texas Lawmakers County Pay Now Loses to Buc-ee’s
Texas has spent three sessions pushing state money into rural sheriff's offices.
Health Care
House Health Care Affordability Panel to Weigh Plan Design, Small-Employer Coverage and Cost Transparency
The Texas House Select Committee on Health Care Affordability will gavel in at 9 a.m. Sept. 1 to take invited testimony only on four interim charges aimed at the cost side of the state's health care system — delivery and financing models, insurance plan design, coverage for smaller employers, and what consumers are able to learn about price and quality before they buy.
Interim Hearings
Senate Water Panel to Weigh Data-Center Cooling Demand and Water-Transparency Rules
The Texas Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture and Rural Affairs will gavel in at 9 a.m. Sept. 1 to take invited and public testimony on a single interim charge: how much water the state's data centers and other energy-intensive industries consume, and what Texas should require them to disclose.
Economy
Senate Local Government Panel to Measure Homestead-Exemption Gains, Probe Appraisal District Budgets
The Texas Senate Committee on Local Government will gavel in at 1 p.m. Sept. 1 to hear invited testimony on two interim charges: what a decade of rising homestead exemptions has actually done to Texas school tax bills, and how county appraisal districts set and pay for their own budgets.
Interim Hearings
Desalination and Air-to-Water Firms Tell Texas Its Own Rules Are Blocking New Supply
Texas built a fund to buy water that does not exist yet.
Interim Hearings
Texas House Panel Hears Social Media Fixes Are Not Impossible, Just Unprofitable
The Texas House passed a social media ban for minors by 116 votes to 25 and watched it die anyway.
Agencies
Landowners Tell House State Affairs: We Got 90 Days and Five Minutes of Cross-Examination on the 765-kV Lines
In order to speed up the development of grid infrastructure, the Legislature cut the clock on transmission permits from a year to 180 days.
Interim Hearings
Cyber Command Chief Tells Texas Lawmakers Rural Help Is ‘Pretty Close to Zero’
Texas stood up a cybersecurity agency last year and gave it responsibility for the whole state.
Data Centers
West Texas Is Getting $100 Billion in Data Centers and Two of the Sites Have No Air Service
A developer building three gigawatt-scale AI data centers in West Texas told state lawmakers Aug. 18 that two of the sites cannot be reached by air.
Education
Texas’ Teacher Pension Fell Out of Actuarial Soundness After Lawmakers Raised Teacher Pay
The pension fund covering Texas public school teachers is no longer actuarially sound, and the reason is the teacher pay raise lawmakers passed last year.
Agencies
Texas’ Broadband Office “Went Astray,” Its New Director Tells House Members
The state office distributing more than $5 billion in broadband money arrived at the Capitol on Aug. 18 with two fired directors behind it, a state auditor's investigation ahead of it and a new manager who did not defend the record.