The Latest Breaking News from Dan Patrick

Texas lawmakers this year are debating whether to block transgender kids’ access to transition-related health care, classify businesses that host drag shows as sexually oriented establishments and limit public school lessons on sexuality and gender identity.

Is all politics truly local? If so, how do we account for many of the priorities on the list of the bills that my home state’s legislature hopes to pass this year?

In 2021, the Texas Senate declined to consider a bill extending the program, which discounted local property taxes to lure big companies to the state. It had become plagued with bipartisan accusations of “corporate welfare.”

Seventy-seven Texas House Republicans signed on as co-authors to state Rep. Valoree Swanson’s bill extending restrictions on transgender athletes to college sports. Gov. Greg Abbott has expressed support for the legislation, which is also a priority of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

The leader of the state House also threw his support behind bills to crack down on how companies handle private data and to protect children from “addictive algorithms” by digital companies.

Lawmakers lowered the penalty to a misdemeanor in 2021, but then almost immediately began discussing raising it back.

Texas is the latest state to pitch a version of the program, which lets parents who opt out of their local school districts use tax dollars to pay for private schooling.

Abbott’s spending proposals also include spending $750 million on school safety and mental health services and expanding postpartum Medicaid to a year.

Texas utility regulators are hawking a costly policy for grid reliability.