The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - April 24, 2025

Starting point is 00:00:00 Howdy folks, today is Thursday, April 24th and you are listening to the Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texans Assistant Editor Rob Lauschus and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, the Texas Senate voted on Thursday to concur with the House's amended version of Senate Bill 2, which would create a $1 billion education savings accounts program in the state. The bill passed the House in the early hours of Friday morning last week after over 12 hours of debate. Earlier this week, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick confirmed he would recommend the Senate concur with the House's changes. Next, the Texas Education Agency has released its 2023 A-F school accountability ratings

Starting point is 00:00:50 after being embroiled in a protracted legal battle to prevent the agency from publicly disclosing them. The 2023 A-F release comes following a ruling from the Texas 15th Court of Appeals that vacated previous orders halting the release. The issue stemmed from challenges to the TEA's 2023 A-F refresh of the accountability ratings, which was designed to update the methodologies used and apply them retroactively. That decision was met with mixed reactions from Texas school districts, culminating in a lawsuit claiming the refresh would, quote,

Starting point is 00:01:25 arbitrarily lower performance ratings for many school districts and campuses even though their performance improved. In other news, a bill to ban Texas students from using personal communication devices on school premises successfully passed the House floor earlier this week, setting the stage for further debate and consideration in the Senate. Representative Carolyn Fairley presented the committee substitute to House Bill 1481 on the floor, saying it, quote, prohibits smart devices from being out during school hours while also maintaining local control. The bill is co-authored and sponsored by 77 other

Starting point is 00:02:03 House members. It passed without much fanfare or debate by a total of 136 yes votes to 10 nos. Also, the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, or DPRIT, partially passed the Texas House of Representatives on Wednesday afternoon after a smooth path through the Senate as one of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick's priorities. Deeprit will be modeled after the state's existing Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas in order to draw leading dementia researchers and companies to the state and quote, enhance the potential for a medical or scientific breakthrough in research on dementia and related disorders," through a $3 billion

Starting point is 00:02:46 allotment in the budget, about 12.6% of the state's $23.8 billion surplus. Patrick first proposed DPRIT in November 2024, after which it was filed by Senate Committee on Finance Chair Joan Huffman as Senate Bill 5. In addition, in an effort to combat financial transactions related to the drug trade, the US Treasury Department promulgated a rule in March that requires money service businesses in five Texas counties to report any cash transactions

Starting point is 00:03:17 over $200, prompting a lawsuit by two small business owners who say the law violates their constitutional rights, resulting in the rule being temporarily blocked. The rule, issued by the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network in March, requires money service businesses, such as check cashing stores, to fill out detailed reports identifying any customer involved in a cash transaction over the $200 threshold to the government. The rule applied to all money service businesses in 30 zip codes along the southern border. The five counties in Texas subject to the disclosure rule include Cameron, El Paso, Hidalgo, Maverick, and Webb.

Starting point is 00:04:00 Last but not least, Harris County has adopted a climate justice plan aimed at reducing pollutants and flooding and expanding reliance on alternative energy sources, but which also advocates for a wide-ranging policy agenda that includes measures to address housing, taxes and wages that extend beyond county authority. Presented to commissioners by the Coalition for Environment, Equity and Resilience, or CEER, and Harris County's Director of Sustainability last week, the project stems from the county's 2023 climate initiative. It is the result of collaboration with an advisory panel and multiple nonprofit progressive groups,

Starting point is 00:04:40 including CEER, Jolt Action, and the criminal justice reform organization Pure Justice. The planning document acknowledged that some of its proposed actions are not only outside the power of the county, but are quote constrained by state laws and actors. Thanks for listening. To support the Texan, please be sure to visit thetexan.news and subscribe to get full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.

The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - April 24, 2025

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.