Inside the Texas Legislature -- bills, votes, and committee action from the Texas House and Senate.
For nearly five hours Tuesday, the Senate’s budget-writing committee tried to answer a question that grows harder the bigger the state budget gets: how much of it disappears to fraud, waste and abuse, and who is supposed to catch it.
A sales tax break that cost Texas an estimated $14.6 million a decade ago is now on track to cost the state roughly $3.3 billion in a single two-year budget — and on Monday the Senate’s budget-writing committee spent the better part of a nine-hour hearing asking whether taxpayers are getting their money’s worth.
Rep. Matt Shaheen's committee will take invited and public testimony Aug. 3 on emerging election technology and AI in political communications, and on the strained rollout of the state's TEAM voter-registration system.
The Texas Senate's Business and Commerce Committee meets Wednesday to review the state of the electric grid, and the item that will get the most attention on its agenda is the rulebook meant to keep a wave of new data centers from raising costs and risking reliability.
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick on Monday handed four Texas Senate committees a new set of interim assignments, directing them to study online ticket resale, religious liberty, child safety in online games, family-court delays and the shrinking Pecos River before the Legislature reconvenes.
The Texas Senate Committee on Higher Education will hear invited testimony July 29 on the distribution methods for the Permanent University Fund and the newer Texas University Fund, and whether either needs reform as more campuses seek research dollars.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows on Tuesday requested that the State Auditor's Office conduct a performance audit of the Texas Broadband Development Office's administration of its grant program, citing concerns about how the office is distributing billions of dollars in state and federal funds for internet expansion.
In late July 2026, the structural foundation of the Texas public education system faced its most significant legal challenge in a decade.
Two state lawmakers have formally asked the Public Utility Commission of Texas to hold off on a final decision on the Howard-Solstice high-voltage power line — and on every other 765-kilovolt segment of the state's transmission plan — until after the Legislature meets in 2027, arguing the state has not tested whether cheaper alternatives could avoid the lines entirely.
The Texas House Committee on Homeland Security, Public Safety & Veterans' Affairs committee will hear invited testimony July 30 on foreign-influenced money transmitters, gaps in foreign-agent disclosure, and remote-access technology embedded in Texas critical infrastructure.