Texas Legislature
Four Takeaways from the Texas Democratic Convention
New Lawsuit Challenges Dozens of Texas Anti-Abortion Restrictions
Two years after a landmark Supreme Court decision, abortion providers and nonprofits are using the ruling to challenge a slew of laws from the last two decades.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday, reproductive health advocates are challenging dozens of Texas anti-abortion laws that span two decades and encompass a wide range o...Read More
How We Got Here: The Disturbing Path that Leads to Child Prison Camps
Trump and Sessions are uniquely awful. But it’s also true that the road to this fresh hell was laid, at least in part, by Bush and Obama.
One of the fresh horrors this week: The Trump administration is considering housing immigrant children in tents at three Texas military bases. On one level, the...Read More
Trump Sides with Ken Paxton to Argue Pre-Existing Conditions Protections are Unconstitutional
In a brief filed Thursday night, the DOJ said it would not defend the ACA in a lawsuit brought by Texas and other Republican states.
Millions of Texans with pre-existing medical conditions cannot be denied coverage by insurance companies under protections established in the Affordable Care Ac...Read More
Greg Abbott’s Own Research Shows He Could Remove a Confederate Marker at the Capitol if He Wanted To
Abbott’s recent crash course on Confederate markers shows that immediate steps to remove the Capitol plaque are available — should he find the stomach.
For the past seven months, Governor Greg Abbott has been studying what he can do about a 59-year-old plaque hanging in the Texas Capitol that denies the Civil W...Read More
Dan’s the Man, Now
Dan Patrick and Donald Trump can provide enough favors, and dish out enough pain, to easily secure the loyalty of people who care primarily about money.
Last summer, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick was neck deep in a dehumanizing and convoluted political brawl over the ability of transgender people to use the ap...Read More
Meet the Merry Band of Texas Democrats Running for Statewide Office
These Democratic candidates hope that an apogee of GOP extremism will help fuel their collective bid to break a 24-year losing streak. Don’t bet on it.
Coming out of the May runoffs, the Texas Democratic Party finally has its statewide ticket firmed up. And at a “Blue Wave Slate Jam” fundraiser in Austin on...Read More
Texas Congressmen Plow Billions into Agribusiness While Proposing to Cut Food Stamps
Mike Conaway and Jodey Arrington are pushing for stricter work requirements for food stamp recipients while helping big commodity farmers rake in billions in government cheese.
The Republican congressmen charged with writing the nation’s Farm Bill like to jabber about how people on food stamps need to get back to work. But those same...Read More
Can Texas Oil Money Stop a Blue Gusher?
The PACs responsible for defending GOP majorities in the U.S. House and Senate are already gushing with money from Lone Star energy giants.
In June 2017, Tesoro Corp., a major oil refiner based in San Antonio, bought El Paso-based Western Refining for $5.8 billion and rebranded itself as Andeavor, b...Read More
Buoyed by the Kochs, Kevin Brady and the GOP Have Some Tax Cuts They’d Like to Sell You
The Texas Congressman is leading the Republicans’ attempt to use tax cuts to win in November.
Before a small audience of conservative activists at a convention center in Conroe, Texas Congressman Kevin Brady outlined the Republican plan to convince a ske...Read More