The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - January 9, 2025
Episode Date: January 9, 2025Want to support The Texan and help us continue providing the Lone Star State with news you can trust? Subscribe today: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/The Texan’s Daily Rundown brings you a quick re...cap of the latest stories in Texas politics so you can stay informed with news you can trust.Want more resources? Be sure to visit The Texan and subscribe for complete access to our in-depth articles, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, videos, podcasts, and more.Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review!
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Howdy folks, today is Thursday, January 9, and you're listening to the Texans Daily Rundown.
I'm the Texans Assistant Editor Rob Lausches, and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas
politics. First up, only days remain in the race for Texas House Speaker, the most contentious one
in recent memory.
Both the Republican and Democratic caucuses are fractured immensely, and it's not clear if anyone currently has the votes yet to obtain the gavel.
Normally, this contest would be long settled by now, but a remarkable cycle filled with historic events and brutal political bloodletting has left House members frayed and unyielding. State Representatives David Cook, Dustin Burroughs, and Ana Maria Ramos are all vying for the position, though it will be
a Republican who wins eventually. Visit thetexan.news to read senior reporter Brad Johnson's
five questions to consider about the race. In other news, efforts to increase border security
under the upcoming Donald Trump administration appear to have some legislative assistance with a new bill filed by a freshman Texas congressman.
Representative Brandon Gill has introduced a bill, the Remain in Mexico Act, which would codify and reinstate the 2019 Migrant Protection Protocols.
Gill's bill has 74 co-sponsors. The Migrant Protection Protocols,
otherwise known as the Remain in Mexico policy, require certain non-citizens attempting to enter
the U.S. from Mexico without proper documentation to wait in Mexico for their immigration proceedings,
where they receive, quote, humanitarian protections for the duration of their stay. Gill won his seat after the retirement of Congressman Michael Burgess.
Last but not least, a controversial federal law that places hefty new reporting requirements
on small businesses has recently faced a battery of legal challenges, with a federal judge in East
Texas now finding the law is likely unconstitutional and staying its enforcement against two business
owners. The lawsuit, brought by the Texas Public Policy Foundation on behalf of Samantha Smith and
Robert Means against the U.S. Department of the Treasury, argues the Corporate Transparency Act,
or CTA, violated Congress's regulatory powers under the Commerce Clause and that its enforcement against the plaintiffs would cause them irreparable harm. The CTA, which was enacted in 2021 as an amendment
to the National Defense Authorization Act, passed under the premise of giving law enforcement a tool
to prevent corporations, formed under state and tribal laws with lax reporting requirements,
from being used as vehicles to launder money and engage in other criminal activity. It would accomplish this goal by requiring
certain private companies to regularly disclose to the US Treasury Department
any beneficial owner who owns more than 25% of the company or exercises
substantial control, as well as their names, date of birth, address, driver license number, and any other
unique identifying numbers.
Thanks for listening.
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