Hot List Day 67

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Day 67 of the 82nd Texas Legislature

LINE OF THE DAY
“We’re playing a game here with people, and I’m not going to be a part of it.”
State. Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Longview, on some of the proposed budget cuts to health and human services.

OBSERVED
Radioactive waste isn’t known as an import most people want near them. But as Forrest Wilder reports, Republican Rep. Tryon Lewis, is pushing legislation that critics say would make it easier for Waste Control to bring waste from out of state and would diminish the role of regulators. “They’re greasing the skids,” said one opponent of the legislation.  

BEST OF THE REST
Will the proposed budget cuts to education trigger more lost federal revenue? Yes—at least in one case. As the Austin American-Statesman reports, “The Austin school district has learned that it could be in jeopardy of losing $62.3 million in federal aid for teacher pay—the largest grant of its kind nationwide when it was awarded last fall—if state and local funding doesn’t come through as planned.” The implications may be big for school districts across the state counting on similar federal grants.

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
It’s a quiet day at the Capitol, but rest up. The House is supposed to take up voter ID legislation Monday. If it’s anything like the Senate’s two-day circus, the debate should be quite a show.