The Texas A&M University System’s regents vote Sept. 3 on clearing the way for a bid to manage the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the federal lab in California behind NASA’s robotic planetary missions. Under the board’s testimony policy, anyone wanting to speak must file by 12:30 p.m. Sept. 1, 24 hours before the meeting convenes.
NASA announced May 22 that it will open the lab’s management contract to competition for the first time. The California Institute of Technology has managed the lab since the 1930s and has held every NASA contract for it without a rival bidder since 1958. The current agreement began Oct. 1, 2018, expires Sept. 30, 2028, and is worth up to $30 billion if NASA exercises every option. The agency’s published schedule calls for a draft solicitation in early 2027, proposals that summer, an award in early 2028 and a new contract beginning the day after Caltech’s ends.
What the regents would authorize is narrower than a bid: permission to negotiate agreements with unnamed “appropriate collaborating entities” toward a proposal. The system has published nothing about its interest, and nothing on the lab was found in the regents’ agenda-item archive. The Los Angeles Times has reported that Texas A&M University was among those registered for a NASA industry event on the contract in July. The item is certified confidential under state law and set for closed session; the only scheduled public presentation is a Sept. 2 committee update from Robert Bishop, the system’s vice chancellor for engineering. The lab has announced about 1,400 job cuts in three rounds since early 2024.
The rest of the three days is ordinary university business, mostly money. Regents take up bond resolutions covering the Permanent University Fund and the system’s revenue financing program, construction money for a semiconductor institute in Bryan, 41 transit buses for College Station, a new Hazlewood veterans initiative and a five-year strategic plan. A consent agenda carries tenure at seven campuses, a dozen proposed degree programs and more than a dozen building and room namings.
Closed session also covers three First Amendment lawsuits against system officials. Two concern campus drag performances and will be argued together before the full Fifth Circuit: one judge blocked the board’s systemwide drag ban in March 2025; another ruled for West Texas A&M in a parallel case in January. The third, filed Aug. 3 by the American Association of University Professors and four professors, challenges a system policy requiring approval before a course addresses race, gender ideology, sexual orientation or gender identity; no ruling has been reported. The agenda book had not been posted as of Aug. 28, so most of the week’s dollar figures will not be public until the meeting.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 12:30 p.m. CT Wednesday, September 2, 2026, running through Friday, September 4. Committee meetings begin at 10 a.m. September 2. The three-day notice was filed August 27 at 5:42 p.m.
- Where
- Board Meeting Room, Board of Regents Annex, 100 Gene Stallings Blvd., and Bethancourt Ballroom, Memorial Student Center, 275 Joe Routt Blvd., College Station.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas A&M University System Board of Regents — nine governor-appointed members serving six-year terms, plus a nonvoting student regent; all seats are filled. Bob Albritton is chairman, Jay Graham vice chairman. Glenn Hegar is chancellor.
- Format
- In person. Open session runs September 3 from 10 a.m.; closed sessions are set for all three days. Testimony is limited to agenda items and must be filed by 12:30 p.m. September 1.
- Live video
- Open portions are webcast at the system’s live streams page. The agenda book is promised at the meeting materials page, which carried nothing for this meeting as of August 28.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer, three-day notice · Committee on Research notice
Board members
- Bob Albritton — chairman; Fort Worth; chairman and CEO of Mayfair Investments.
- Jay Graham — vice chairman; Bryan; founder of Spur Energy Partners.
- David C. Baggett — Houston; founder and managing partner of Opportune LLP.
- John W. Bellinger — San Antonio; co-founder of Food Safety Net Services.
- Randy Brooks — San Angelo; partner in BNB Ventures.
- Kelley Sullivan Georgiades — Houston; cattle rancher and Sullivan Brothers executive.
- Mike Hernandez III — Fort Worth; owner and CEO of D&M Leasing.
- William Mahomes Jr. — Dallas; attorney, of counsel at Bracewell.
- Sam Torn — Houston; owner of Camp Ozark and Camp OTX.
- Lisa D. Cantu — student regent, nonvoting; Mission; Texas A&M doctoral student.
Names, roles and committee chairmanships come from the system’s board page and committees page, corroborated by the February 4-5, 2026 minutes, in which all nine regents were present. Cities come from the governor’s appointment releases for Albritton, Brooks and Mahomes, Baggett, Bellinger and Torn and Graham, Hernandez and Georgiades; the governor’s 2025 release lists Graham in Houston, while his current system biography says Bryan. The board is created by Chapter 85 of the Education Code. Meeting contact: Vickie Spillers, (979) 845-9600.