May Legislative Update​

Sande Harrison, Chair

 

Legislative Update from State Representative Drew Darby

The 89th Legislative Session has been one of the most productive and successful for House District 72. The  session ends on June 2nd and much work remains.  

From the start, I want to highlight the following conservative priorities have passed from your Texas House: 

• $8 billion in public school funding (HB 2)  

• Banning hostile foreign governments, entities, and individuals from buying Texas land (SB 17)  • Preventing minors from accessing sexually explicit materials in public libraries (HB 3325)  

In addition, since the beginning of the legislative session, I have been working hard for our district—and the  results speak for themselves. I filed a record 64 bills, received hearings on 51 of them (over 79%), and had 43  bills voted out of committee—an impressive 84% success rate for bills heard. That level of productivity means  our strong rural, conservative priorities are being heard loud and clear on the House floor. 

Among the highlights:               

⮚ Protecting Senior Homeowners: I passed House Bill 2525 to stop appraisal districts from revoking  homestead and charitable exemptions for our local seniors. 

⮚ Defending Rural Food Bank Independence: I took on large Non-Governmental Organizations trying  to take control of our rural food banks. 

⮚ Cracking Down on Oilfield Theft: HB 48 creates a dedicated Organized Oilfield Theft Unit within the  Department of Public Safety to combat the gangs and cartels actively stealing from our economy and  threatening our communities. 

⮚ Expanding Mental Health Providers: HB 1716 increases mental health providers by allowing supervised counselors and social work associates to be reimbursed while completing their clinical  training. We have worked closely with organizations like West Texas Counseling & Guidance and La  Esperanza Clinic.  

I am honored to carry these essential bills and proud to say that House District 72 is leading the way. Currently,  I rank second in the entire House for the number of bills heard, voted out of committee, and passed off  the House floor—proof that West Texas is back in the driver’s seat. 

Still, important work continues. 

Two key bills—HB 3265, which takes on Big Pharma to stop overburdening local hospitals and health clinics,  and HB 3794, which empowers Advanced Practice Registered Nurses to serve our rural areas and address the  critical healthcare shortage. 

As chairman of the House Committee on Energy Resources, I have kept our focus where it belongs: growing  our oil and gas economy, safeguarding our communities from wildfires and earthquakes, and taking the fight to  the cartels. In addition to passing HB 48, I also helped pass: 

⮚ HB 1647: Mandating better inter-agency sharing of information on angerous criminals. ⮚ HB 3707: Increasing penalties for stealing oil and gas infrastructure and products. 

As the legislative session continues, I remain deeply committed to representing the interests of rural Texans and  ensuring that our values and concerns are heard loud and clear at the Capitol. I am honored to serve as your  voice in Austin and will continue fighting to deliver meaningful results for our district. 

As always, if you have questions or comments or would like to schedule a meeting, please contact my district  director, Lori Wilson, at (325) 658-7313 or via email at lori.wilson@house.texas.gov.

 

Congressman August Pfluger Invitation to Book Summer Capitol Tours

If you are visiting Washington, D.C. this summer, Congressman August Pfluger’s office would be thrilled to book a tour of the U.S. Capitol building for you and your group. His office can also assist in requesting White House tours and tours of other iconic buildings around DC. 

 

Visit https://pfluger.house.gov/forms/tourrequest/ to book your tour today. The earlier you can get your request in the better.

 

Abbott signs first bill of session into law, creating a Texas DOGE

The first bill to reach Abbott’s desk this session creates a regulation-cutting state agency under the purview of the governor. It was passed with bipartisan supermajorities.

On April 23, Gov. Greg Abbott signed the first law of this year’s legislative session, a bill creating a new regulation-cutting agency inspired by Elon Musk’s federal Department of Government Efficiency.  “Texas can have our own DOGE,” Abbott said Wednesday. “What this law is going to do is make government more efficient and less costly.”

Senate Bill 14, which passed both the House and Senate with bipartisan supermajorities, establishes the “Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office” at a cost of $22.8 million over the next five years.  Abbott signed the bill with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, House Speaker Dustin Burrows and the bill’s sponsors — Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, and Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford — by his side.

“The fewer regulations we have, the more efficient they are, the easier they are to understand — is going to help Texas business and economy continue to boom, which is why I'm excited this is the first bill that is being signed,” Burrows said.

With five weeks left in the biennial legislative session, SB 14 is the first bill to reach Abbott’s desk. The Senate and House have each passed other priority measures — including a school voucher program that Patrick put on a glide path last week when he endorsed the House’s proposal — but some, like the budget, differ slightly across chambers and still require final approval before they can go to the governor.

The “Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office” will be charged with helping other state agencies identify “unnecessary and ineffective rules.” It will also advise agencies on ways to make regulations more effective, streamline the regulatory process, reduce department costs and increase public access to regulatory information.

The governor will be responsible for appointing members of the panel, which will be supported by up to 18 full-time staff members.  The new law also states that courts in Texas are not required to defer to a state agency’s interpretation of the law in legal challenges of regulations. It follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of the Chevron doctrine, which for 40 years required the court to follow government agencies’ determination of the law when statutes were ambiguous, as long as it was reasonable. The doctrine was a prime target for those looking to roll back the power of federal agencies. 

SB 14, which was designated a priority bill in the Senate, is part of a broader push by Republican elected officials to continue to make Texas more attractive to businesses and corporations. In 2023, the Legislature created a specialized business court, and lawmakers this session are looking to pass tighter restrictions on lawsuits. 

Other states have also established groups inspired by DOGE, including Kentucky, Iowa, Oklahoma, New Hampshire and Louisiana.

 

Can Texas clean up fracking water enough to use for farming?

The Texas Legislature has invested millions in research to clean the fracking wastewater. Critics say it’s not a viable solution to the state’s water crisis.

On any given day, energy companies across the vast Permian Basin in West Texas inject millions of gallons of water into the dry brown earth, breaking up layers of rock on the hunt for crude oil.  As oil and gas are extracted, water flows back up. It is all but unusable — unless treated.  Often referred to as produced water, the grimy backwash is full of dirt, minerals and hundreds of chemicals, some of which can be radioactive. Companies must dispose of it somehow. Most, with state permission, inject it underground. Increasingly, oil producers are cleaning it up just enough to reuse it for more fracking.

Now, amid a growing water crisis, there is interest in oil country — and Austin — to clean the water further for agriculture and other industries.

Texas Pacific Water Resources is one company leading the effort. The West Texas company says it has developed methods to clean the water sufficiently to be released into bodies of water that can be used by farmers. And it’s seeking state permission to expand its operation, with the hope of sending millions of gallons up the Pecos River to parched farm land.  “ We've seen in testing the soil and the crops that no contamination was detected,” Adrienne Lopez, a research manager at Texas Pacific, said. “The soil’s been perfectly healthy, as well as the plants.”

The state’s water supply is under duress from a growing population and deteriorating infrastructure. In West Texas, as in much of the state, there is not enough water to meet demand if the state is struck by a 100-year drought, according to state data. The state’s water plan suggests municipal needs, in particular, will grow in this region of the state for decades to come.  And data gathered by the Texas Water Development Board, which monitors the state’s water distribution, estimates the region will need tens of thousands of acre-feet to sustain the multiple industries — especially the power generators.

Because of this, there is much urgency to find new water supply. As reported last month, lawmakers, including our own Senator Charles Perry, are debating a package of bills that would inject billions to secure the state's water future. Meanwhile, supporters of cleaning fracking water caution this effort is years away from saving the state from its water crisis.

 

Will the May, 2025 elections be the last in May for Texas?

The Texas House is considering a bill to abolish May elections, which have the lowest turnout of any election.

Participation in municipal elections, which largely happen the first Saturday in May, is notoriously low. That’s one reason why Texas lawmakers are considering ending them.

Senate Bill 1209, authored by Sen. Bryan Hughes, a Mineola Republican, would require most elections to be held in November and on Tuesdays. There are exceptions for the primaries, runoffs and special elections. That means city and school districts would be required to hold their elections in November, rather than May, as they are now.

“Low turnout elections are closely and resource-intensive. And since each election has substantial fixed costs, the cost per ballot increases significantly when there’s low turnout,” Hughes told the State Affairs Committee.

The drop from a general fall election to ones held in May are staggering. In November 2022, about 44% of registered Dallas County voters participated in the election. The next May, just 9%.

“People don't pay attention to local elections, and in May, they generally are local elections,” said Joyce LeBombard, president of the League of Women Voters in Texas. “Usually, governor elections and above get more attention than anything else, even though those local elections impact voters, generally much more than National elections."

Also, the legislation, which has already won approval from the state Senate and is waiting for a House committee to review it, would ease the strain on smaller counties and cities of holding multiple elections a year. And it has the potential to save taxpayers.

Large counties worry the change would create a lengthy ballot, which, in turn, would mean longer waiting times for voters, said Jennifer Doinoff, who spoke during the State Affairs Committee hearing on behalf of large and small counties for the Texas Association of County Election Officials.

“Another concern is that some (counties) feel that moving all the jurisdictions of the May ballot would increase the number of December runoffs, resulting in very low turnout for those elections, and that those runoffs typically happen right during the holidays,” Doinoff said.

Small counties were typically in favor of the bill.  Many small counties, who have smaller staff, struggle to carry out multiple elections at one time and meet deadlines, Doinoff said.

There would be different complications. School districts whose borders span two counties would have to work out where voters cast their ballots, and it may complicate the timeline for bond issues.

School districts will often seek bonds during the May elections with the goal of starting, and hopefully finishing, work by the start of school the following August, she said. Requiring a November election throws that out the window.

Smith, who also spoke on behalf of the Fast Growth Schools Coalition, added moving school elections to November could cost school board candidates and supporters of bond elections more money to advertise amid national politics.

Common Cause Texas, a nonprofit voting advocacy group, opposes the bill. Emily French, the group's policy director, said in an interview, she worries that prohibiting election on Saturday could disenfranchise people who must work on Tuesdays.

LeBombard, the League of Women Voters leader, sees it differently and thinks turnout will increase.  “There will be more items in the election for voters to think about and for people to talk about,” LeBombard said. “So it will likely get more coverage than if it’s just a (municipal water district) having an election.”

 

Credit:  Texas Tribune, Kayla Guy, Jess Huff, Carlos Nogueras Ramos

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