Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 2306 and Senate Bill 1212 into law at the Governor’s Mansion, imposing the toughest penalties on human traffickers and ensuring offenders who target children and vulnerable Texans stay behind bars. “I thank all the survivors of human trafficking for stepping up and telling their stories, sharing their insight, and talking about what needs […]
Bail Reforms, Pay hike for teachers, Expansion of teacher incentive allotments. By Richard Lee The Senate passed a number of bills this week intended to keep dangerous criminals behind bars instead of free on bail. Since 2021, 162 new homicide cases have been filed in Harris County alone where the defendant is alleged to have […]
By Richard Lee/ Special to East Texas Review The Senate Finance Committee on Monday began the first in what will be weeks’ worth of hearings on the budget for the 2026-2027 biennium. Chair and Houston Senator Joan Huffman unveiled the base proposal last week, which would appropriate $332.2 billion, virtually identical to the amount appropriated […]
Governor Greg Abbott said he would veto any school finance legislation that did not contain school choice provisions. By Richard Lee/Special to ETR The Senate approved a bill on Friday that would allocate hundreds of millions of state dollars to help school districts comply with new school safety requirements. Bill author and Houston Senator Joan […]
By Richard Lee After approving more than $5 billion for state border security efforts in the regular session, the Senate added another $1.5 billion in Tuesday’s session, almost all of which is earmarked for building more miles of the permanent wall between Texas and Mexico. SB 6 author and Houston Senator Joan Huffman said that […]
