With billions of surplus {dollars} to spend, coverage flashpoints start to floor within the 88th Texas Legislature, which gaveled again into session on Tuesday afternoon.
AUSTIN, Texas — The ceremony typically dominates opening day at the state legislature, however some official enterprise usually will get achieved within the preliminary hours.
In the Texas House of Representatives on Tuesday, members overwhelmingly re-elected Dade Phelan as Speaker.
The Republican from Beaumont then introduced a lot of legislative priorities in his three-page opening remarks. Among them was how lawmakers ought to deal with the bloodbath of 19 college students and two lecturers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde final May.
“We owe it to the memory of those children and teachers to make sensible, meaningful change,” Phelan stated. “This is going to be an especially tough conversation, but this body has proven capable of handling tough conversations in the past. I am confident we will do so again.”
With that, Phelan challenged fellow Republicans.
After the 2018 college taking pictures in Santa Fe, state lawmakers voted to additional harden college campus. It is unclear what sorts of laws that conservatives would assist now after Uvalde.
Texas Democrats need to elevate the authorized age to buy a firearm from 18 to 21. The college shooter in Uvalde simply turned 18 and legally bought firearms.
“I think we need to really evaluate who should have guns in our state of Texas. And I’m not advocating we take folks guns so if you hear just a part of my statement that is not my statement. My statement is gun control needs to be dealt with responsibly,” stated state Rep. Yvonne Davis, D-Duncanville.
But Texas conservatives additionally stated they need to pursue medical doctors who carry out intercourse adjustments on folks beneath 18, rein in district attorneys who don’t prosecute violent criminals, and Phelan stated he additionally needs to guard minors from social media apps.
But what may that laws appear to be? Will lawmakers ban youngsters from utilizing social media apps, like state Rep. Jared Patterson proposed to WFAA in July.
State Rep. Craig Goldman, R-Fort Worth, and the brand new chairman of Texas House Republican Caucus stated he helps that concept on the floor.
“We’ll see what it says. We’re at the beginning of the session and so many bills have already been filed and people are like ‘oh my gosh, look at this bill [or] ‘I can’t believe it’ or ‘go, go, go’ whereas you don’t know if it’s even going to get a hearing,” Goldman defined.
But lawmakers may also debate the best way to spend a $32 billion greenback surplus.
Republicans need to use a big portion of it to cut back the state’s always rising property taxes.
State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, and the brand new chairman of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, stated he wish to divvy up surplus money and let Texans determine whether or not to spend it on property taxes or anything.
“We have one thing to do in this building as mandated by the constitution. That’s to adopt a budget. This budget is going to have extra money in it, so we have the extra added bonus of actually doing something to help people. When we’re done with that, if Republicans want to have a culture war and we want to play dog whistle politics, well let’s lock the door and go all night if we have to. Let’s go all weekend if we need to but let’s take care of the people’s business first,” Martinez Fischer defined.
It takes the legislature a couple of weeks to spin up into motion.
On Tuesday morning at 10 a.m., members of the House will interact in what’s more likely to be a vigorous debate concerning the guidelines that chamber will use over the subsequent 5 months.
Committee leaders might be named in a few weeks after which the work of crafting new Texas legal guidelines really begins.
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