The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - June 6, 2025

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free "Remember the Alamo" hat with an annual subscription to The Texan: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion.Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.2025 Texas Legislative Session Ends After Passing Education Funding, School Choice, THC BanTexas House and Senate Strike Last-Minute Deal on Judicial Pay Raises, Lawmaker Pension IncreasesHere’s a Look at the Status of Dan Patrick’s Texas Senate Legislative PrioritiesTexas Sheriff-Federal Official Immigration Enforcement Partnership Bill Sent to GovernorTexas Medical Cannabis 'Compassionate Use Program' Expansion Bill Heads to Abbott's DeskEducation Legislation Roundup: Bills Addressed During 89th SessionAbortion Legislation Roundup: Bills Taken Up During 89th SessionBorder, Immigration Legislation Roundup: Bills Taken Up During 89th SessionRep. Tony Tinderholt Announces Retirement After Six Terms in Texas HouseDepartment of Justice Sues Texas for Offering In-State Tuition to Illegal AliensBlackRock Removed From ‘Fossil Fuel Boycotter’ List by Texas Comptroller

Howdy folks and welcome back to the Weekly Roundup. I'm here with Brad and Cameron in person and none other than Mary-Lise Cosgrave. Remote again, which is a huge bummer for us, but regardless she's on the pod. We'll take it. Yeah, well happy to be here even if it's remote, which is not my favorite form. It has been a long time since this was the normal for a long time for many months this was how we did things um and it's odd to kind of be back in that groove after you've been in person for about six months. I hate it. Whose fault is it Bradley? Mary Lee's Cause Graves. to the press. Whose fault is it, Bradley?

Mary Lee's Cosgraves. Her name is Mary Lee's Cosgrave. Folks, don't get it twisted. But that has happened quite often, where folks mistake your last name for Cosgraves, which is so weird. Yeah, oddly very frequent. It's not even that popular of a lot.

I've never met somebody with the last name Cosgraves. Never. For some reason they think that's how her name is spelled and said. Do people mispronounce your name at all? There's lots, lots of different capital letters interspersed. I went from Mackenzie Taylor to Mackenzie DeLulo. Very different. So yes, people misspell like I don't I wouldn't even if someone said the word DeLulo to me I would not know how

to begin to spell that. Yeah. And I do have the my parents opted for the capital M lower case C capital K situation. It's a deliberate choice. And then my my married name is D, capital D, lowercase i, capital L. Yeah. And then a couple more L's. A couple, like there are three L's. Three L's. Delululala. No one's taking more L's than a delulo.

Yeah. No one's taking more L's than a delulo. I will say I do often tell folks that it's like Jason Derulo without the R. Yeah. Oh. And people get that. Jason Derulo. Is it Derulo? Yes. It would have to be you would replace the R with an L.

Yeah. That's not what you said. I made it a little simpler than it is, yes. That would be the stated Daulo. Okay, Bradley. That's correct. My goodness. that would be the stated deulo. Okay Bradley that's correct. My goodness. I'm trying to simplify but that that has helped some folks. Yeah. If they're over a certain age it does not. No. If they're under a certain age it does not because Jason Derulo is kinda like our...

Yeah it's a very millennial. Very millennial reference. Yeah. So it does not work. Only a few hits and you had to be there at the time. They weren't sustained in their popularity. And one during COVID. He had a hit. He had a hit during COVID. Really? I don't like to talk about it.

Oh. It really was not good. OK. I don't know also how I feel about the fact that I know that information, but I do. He also is, did he pioneer the stating one's own name in the first bit of a song? Who was first? Who was first, him or DJ Khaled? I don't know. Oh, DJ Khaled is first, come on. Also DJ Khaled does it in such a way more, he's way cooler than Jason Derulo. Didn't T-Pain also do it?

Oh, T-Pain may have been for us. That's a good pull right there. Yeah, thank you. You know T-Pain has been covering a bunch of like normal, not normal, that's so weird, but like ballads or like he's been singing a ton of like he's singing for Stapleton's song and it was actually, no. The guy's got a voice. That's great. Yeah., I know put some respect on his name. I would never have that six months ago That's my bad. Yeah, come on shout out shout out T pain on the Texan Maybe you'll listen to this Mary Lee's do you know any of these people that we're talking about? You know, I actually do even though they were slightly before my time But I was gonna say speaking of those folks

I don't know if you know that Snoop Dogg has started doing nursery rhymes and Singing songs for children. He's a renaissance. He's also made a little bit a Renaissance man perfect timing for a child Yeah, that's yeah, that's all I'm gonna play. That's all I'll play. No, Einstein. We're going with Snoop Dogg. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, You're not going to be able to cook with THC here in Texas pretty soon. I know. Seriously. He did have a brownie recipe. Just listening to Snoop Dogg makes you high. And a gin and juice recipe would be, of course.

Sipping on gin and juice. Okay, well without further ado, should we get into, wow, well this kind of does dovetail into what we're about to talk about. The legislative session. Cameron, always setting it up. Always setting it up. Let's talk about the end of the legislative session. Cameron, always setting it up. Always setting it up. Let's talk about the end of the legislative session. We are recording a few days after Sine Die here, which is wild to think about.

I do think the last month of session goes by so quickly that it does feel appropriate that it's here in some ways. It's like, yeah, it's about time. But Brad, why don't we talk about just a quick overview of the session of Sine Die, kind of walk us through the end of session. Well Siny Die did have a bit of a last second kerfuffle. Kerfuffle. A bit of a panic as it were.

And I think we'll talk about the next segment. But overall this thing was relatively calm compared to what I thought it was going to be going into this. The whole session? Is that what you mean or the end of session? The whole session. The whole session. I agree.

On the aggregate, you know, they got a bunch of the stuff they wanted done and they did it without clubbing each other to death. Politically, of course. And so... to death politically of course and so although there have been instances of violence in legislature there were a couple fights but they didn't bubble up into anything significant yeah I'm talking historically but oh yeah Preston Brooks caning that William Se it William Seward? Yeah, that did happen. I don't think it was William Seward.

William Seward. Who was the Seward? Wasn't it? William Seward was Lincoln's Secretary of State, wasn't he? Yeah. But I don't think he was, I don't think he was, sorry, I'll fact check this, but. Anyway, so, you know, the top lines of stuff that passed, 8.5 billion dollar education funding Charles Sumner Charles Sumner

The education savings account program THC band which is going to be interesting to see if that if the governor vetoes that all eyes are on him now I Know what else the movie fund, the dipper it. Doge. Doge was, yeah, that was so early, that was a big. Make Texas healthy again.

How do you say that colloquially? Maha. Mataha? Mataha, it doesn't roll up the tongue. Oh yeah, exactly, the T in there. The bail stuff. Bail, of course, yeah. They managed to get a lot of things done and obviously different people will have different opinions on what passed and what didn't.

But on the aggregate, things did not fall apart like we thought that it was possible, especially with how much vitriol was in the speaker's race before everything was decided and even early on But quickly burrows and Patrick made made nice The we talked about this on great detail on the smoke-filled room episode going out Monday, but a big turn was the Motion to vacate burrows a speaker only two votes, things were very calm after that. It just, it did not, clearly nobody had any interest

in repeating what happened in 23. Just the general discord within the Capitol. Maybe you guys answered this on Smoke-Filled Room, which comes out Monday. Comes out Monday. But did you guys pick this on smoke-filled room which comes out Monday but did you guys like pick a big winner like who is the winner this that's such a good question we did not we did a top five moments of session okay kind of like what we thought the big pivotal key yeah big moments but if you can pick someone who was like who came out on top what like an individual or a

organization that was really pushing for an issue or Well, what what do you think one who or who won? I would say more than anything else the big three The big three speaker the governor and lieutenant governor. Yeah And you know, obviously they will like things that pass they will be less than happy with things that pass But generally they agreed on everything, you know, obviously they will like things that pass, they will be less than happy with things that pass, but generally they agreed on everything. You know, what my newsletter the week before Sinead I think was about how Burroughs and Patrick are like two peas in a pod. Really? Yeah. And there's a lot of talk about, oh, the house getting rolled, the Senate got everything they wanted. I don't think that's entirely true, but the biggest thing is that Burroughs and Patrick agreed fundamentally on

most of this stuff, and I think that was pretty clear with how easy things tended to be. They weren't easy per se, but they were easier than they have been in the past significantly. they weren't easy per se but they were easier than they have been in the past significantly and I would put the big three is the biggest winner. What about you? I would have said I think I think the governor won with school choice I think that was a huge I mean but we all expected a win for him in that category I think the winners this session are Burroughs and Patrick even more so than the governor. Partially because I think if you look at Dan Patrick, there are multiple projects.

I call them projects because like Diprit, the movie incentive, the THC band, like all of those are hefty poles for the lieutenant governor and kind of came out of nowhere. And they're not just policy. They're not just policy. Right, they extend beyond that. They really do and they feel like more,

the THCBN aside, the other two are really projects in my mind. And he got those across the finish line and remained relatively politically unscathed in those instances despite some pushback from folks in the legislature and publicly. I'd also say Burroughs had a very tough uphill battle that he had to deal with the entire legislative session. And it started off in a very rocky uphill battle that he had to, you know, deal with the entire legislative session.

And it started off in a very rocky sense of speakership. And you look back and you're like, wow, that was navigated pretty well. And he's in a much better spot than he was previously. So I think they had even more successful sessions than the governor, despite him getting his keystone priority across the finish line. It also probably could be, in some part, my bias there could be due in part to the, like, how recently all these things happened and how school choice feels like it happened so long ago, right? But I put, I think those two leaders of the chambers had tougher battles to fight than The governor did after school choice was passed. Yeah Yeah, I I was gonna say I was gonna say the governor because of

School choice passing just because it's been his issue for he went to war on it. He's got millions of dollars Yeah, but you could also yes his money, but But you could also say it was the school choice groups, the ones who have been really pushing the issue, getting parents on the side of this, getting elected officials on their side of the issue. So yeah, I would say either Governor Abbott or the pro-school choice PACs or groups or things like that. So yeah. What about what about Mary Lee's? Who does she think the big winner of the 1896? Well, okay, as I'm

sitting here noodling on it, I'm thinking Governor Greg Abbott because the whole school choice issue was he had to be very strategic about it. And this was something, someone just called it like a battle. This was something he's been working on for a very long time. And he made several moves throughout the past year's sessions where he was kind of shifting things around to make sure that this would eventually culminate in what it is now in passing. So I think that that, I think that he came out on top because it was such a long fought fight. All of these a lot of these other issues were more last minute things and they were successes, but

this was very this took a lot of effort over a lot of time. So I'm gonna hand it. I'm gonna hand the trophy trophy out. But that makes sense. Yeah, for, for sure. I have a ton of questions about this. I'm sure you guys covered it all in Smokefilter Room. So I'll have to tune in Monday. Tune in Monday. And if we don't answer your questions. We'll bring it up again. We'll bring it up again.

Brad, do you wanna walk through a little bit of that last minute kerfuffle that almost derailed a lot of what was happening at the end of the session? Yeah, so this was a judicial pay issue and it kind of came out of nowhere in my newsletter this week. I wrote basically it was procrastination that kind of put this off. I go you know everyone wants to give judges a raise as well get it. Well the problem was that it was tied to and and this is the problem, is why it failed the last couple of sessions.

It's tied to legislative pensions. And the House sent over a bill back to the Senate, after the Senate passed it, that gave judges the $175,000 base pay, a $35,000 pay raise that everyone had been talking about and the two chambers were in lockstep on that. The problem came on the pension side of things and do we de-link the legislative pension, the elected class pension, or do we keep it in line with and connected to the judicial based pay it's fallen apart previously because it's a bad look to vote to increase your pension and that has been used against members especially House

Republicans in primaries during in the last cycle last two cycles it's been a theme talked about. And it's a hard thing to explain because the linkage is not this legislature's fault or even anyone that's even been close to office any time recently. But it's something this legislature has to deal with. And then you get into the fact that some people

do not actually want to deal with it because they want, they feel that they, this is a big position in the Senate, that they get $7,200 a year plus per diem during a session. It's not a lot of money. And so the payoff they get by serving comes at the end where they get some of them a pretty nice pension. Others don't get anything. Just depends on how long you're in the legislature or elected office. And so this is a difficult political issue to solve.

And so the way the House did it was they anchored it in their legislation to $140,000. They struck the part of code that says just explicitly base judicial pay and they replaced it with $140,000. So as a factor of the equation to calculate pensions, it's anchored at $140,000. It doesn't move with the judicial pay. Now the Senate objected to that and they declared it not germane and we went into pretty significant detail on smoke-filled room about this but generally it's kind of it's a strange argument to make is particularly based on how they came up

with a final compromise where they did basically the same thing. The Senate declared it not germane. They sent a resolution back to the House saying, hey we're fine with everything else in this bill, here's an alternate version where they kind of bifurcated things and adopt this and we'll be good. Well the House didn't do that. they didn't wanna do that. And because they'd been beaten over the head with this issue previously in primaries. And so that sparked a standoff. Well, question was on Sine Die,

are we gonna get a deal? And they did. They came up with something. But it was the, it was Sine Die, it was the very last day of session. Yep, literally 30 minutes after they voted on it in the house, they They adjourned signing die. So it was like you said very last thing the way they did it was they raised usual paid 175 and then

Also, the pension was raised the factor was raised anchored at $175,000 now Now they, the D-Link comes when they shift responsibilities for future pension raises to the Texas Ethics Commission and that'll start in 2030. So they found a really complicated weave through this but they got it done and they got out of Dodge and it won't be a special on this. Who were the players negotiating all of this? The two biggest were, other than the Speaker and the Lieutenant Governor themselves, because they were involved in this heavily, but it was Jeff Leach in the House, along with the members of the conference committee in the House,

but he was the House sponsor. Then Joan Huffman in the Senate was that author. Paul Bettencourt was heavily involved in this. He wrote the resolution, authored the resolution that they passed. And like I said, the Speaker and Lieutenant Governor, the Speaker was over in the Senate negotiating. They were trying to figure this out,

and they ultimately did. So judges got their long awaited pay raise. It was interesting. We saw Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock send out suggested language in a letter to try and find a compromise, which is odd. I don't think I've ever seen a judge wading into a policy fight like that. And obviously this is something he called for in his state of the judiciary speech. So it's obviously very personal.

The argument is judges haven't had pay raises since 2013 and we're losing highly qualified people to that because they can make far more money over on the attorney side of things and that just hurts the quality of the bench in Texas. And so that was the argument. They got done, got across the line, and everyone seemed happy enough about it. Happy enough is the key phrase. Can I ask a quick question?

Yes. With Justice Jeremy Blacklock waiting in to this policy fight, like making public statements about it. Is this normal for Texas Supreme Court justice to be vocal about policy issues? Because you don't normally see this from Supreme Court justices. Is this historically something that happens with Texas Supreme Court justices? I think it's not unusual for them to make, to push for stuff that relates to them in the state of the judiciary speech.

That's totally normal. But a letter trying to strike a deal with suggested language for the bill, that is something I've never seen before. That's interesting. And the state of the judiciary is where they'll make those asks or talk about how, again, it's the state of the judiciary. That's just kind of like 30,000 foot perspective from somebody on the very inside saying, this is how I see it.

This is what needs to change, whatever it may be. So that's where it's typically done. And then it's kind of like left, like just reference what's, what was said. And then here he is writing up a bill. And we all I won't go into details on this because it's too much to explain and we explained it in the smoke-filled room but there's a tie in here that's not related to financial compensations related to the emoluments clause of the Texas Constitution and whether that makes ineligible people who voted for an increase

to run for a different office. And so there's a twist there as well and there happens to be a dam breaking at the top of the ticket with a lot of senators whose names are being mentioned in relation to running for those offices whose pensions are tied in the same way that legislators pensions are tied to this. So we went into more detail on SFR but that's another wrinkle of this. Interesting. So talking about the winners from this session obviously the lieutenant governor tops that list for a couple of us. Cam I want

you to talk about the priority bills of his specifically that made it across the finish line this session. Yeah lieutenant Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, he releases a list of his priority pieces of legislation at the beginning of every session. There were 40 mentioned during the 89th session. And as of my count, 30 of the 40 made it to the governor's desk. So very successful session for the upper chamber. We've already mentioned a number of the more high profile bills. School choice, SB 2, banning THC in Texas, SB 3, the DIPPRIT, Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, DOGE, the stopping foreign adversary land grabs, that's SB 17. That was a big fight this session.

So lots of high profile issues. The Senate took up. They were part of the priority list and they made it all the way to the governor. And it's just emblematic of the upper chamber being much more deliberate with their parliamentary process early in the session. They are bringing up bills and passing them in rapid succession and then it really puts a lot of the onus on the house to pass them, which is really interesting this session that there was such a cordial relationship between the leaders of both chambers it really helped the upper chamber be much more successful with getting these priority pieces of legislation across the finish line so you know it was a success for both

chambers ultimately getting these issues to to pass into the governor's desk. Will it remain? Will Patrick and Burroughs remain in the in the good graces? We'll see what happens over the interim and before the 90th session but as of right now things to be are going well between both chambers and It's helped the success of the upper chamber. Definitely and we thought the Senate had a lot of priorities the house had 150 So that's a whole other story But certainly if you want to go check out the Senate's a rundown Cameron has that all at the Texan news full list

Yep the Senate's rundown Cameron has that all at the Texan.News full list. Yep. Cameron also talked about a bill to enhance cooperation between state and federal agencies specifically to enforce immigration law and this being sent to the governor for signing. Give us the details. So we're talking about Senate Bill 8 here. This was a very interesting piece of legislation because it in essence creates greater cooperation between state law enforcement and federal agencies in enforcing immigration law. And this is done through the Immigration and Nationalities Act through Section 287 G where state sheriffs are going to enter into agreements with immigration and custom enforcement otherwise known as ice and so

First there was a more universal model where there's these three different models that These agreements can take the shape of. That's how the bill was originally written. Then it passed in a rewritten form that was focused on the Warrant Service Agreement, where it was essentially, when illegal immigrants were in the jail system in prisons, then sheriffs could intervene on using federal authority to either report or

deport these individuals. That then shifted again into the more universal model in its final shape and form which produced a long debate on the house floor. I detail all of that. I go through all the details about what was really changed, how the grant funding was changed from being front-loaded to back-loaded, the increase in the tiers of the number of the amount of money being sent to the different cities based on population. So there's a lot of nuance here. People can go check out the piece, but it didn't end up passing. And like I mentioned, it's going to be sent to Governor Greg Abbott's desk and being

such a low bill number, it was a priority piece for the Senate. Absolutely. Killer coverage, Cameron. Thank you. We're going to stick with you though. We're talking with you about a lot of stuff today. Let's talk about expanding the state's medical marijuana program. It was passed this last week.

Of course, this all had to do in large part with the SB3 fight, the THC ban. These kind of went hand in hand, even if they were decoupled legislatively. Walk us through where we're at. So, teacup expansion. Teacup, the Compassionate Use Program. Compassionate Use Program, HB 46. I won't bury the lead, it passed 138 to 1, so it was nearly unanimous. And what was interesting about this, like you mentioned, is the agreements to pass T-Cup were linked in some way to a number of other pieces of legislation. Not directly, because there was discussions about public school finance at one point, there was discussions about SB3 at one point, all related to expanding this compassionate use program. And the different versions that made its way through the legislative process all dealt

with different definitions and inclusions of certain qualifying conditions. More specifically, there was a definition included for chronic pain, which was a big jumping off point for someone like Tom Alverson, who was really pushing for expanding this program to include chronic pain. And him and Dan Patrick came to some sort of agreement for the inclusion of chronic pain, but after it was included, there was discussions that it wasn't clear enough or wasn't expansive enough because in the definition that was adopted by the Senate included the Texas Medical Board definition that includes mention of

being on opioid treatments prior to qualifying for the T-Cup program. Then when the Conference Community report finally came back and was rewritten, they essentially wiped away the opioid mention, replaced that with a more broad definition. So individuals who are suffering from chronic pain can qualify for T-cup without needing to be on an opioid treatment prior to that. So there was lots of rewriting and reformulations of the spill going on and eventually it did pass like I mentioned. One other thing before I wrap up, the inclusion of veterans was a big issue for a lot of people.

And during the floor discussion, Representative Tony Tinderholt asked, will veterans be covered? Representative Ken King said yes. And that answer was based upon the broader definitions for many of these qualifying conditions. So traumatic brain injuries, chronic pain, like I mentioned, something veterans suffer from, they in essence would qualify under T-Cup. So we talked about, we haven't really gone too deep into SB3. Maybe we'll bring it up again later in our discussion today. I'm sure it will. But that's another big fight like Brad mentioned is it's all on the governor's shoulders now what's going to happen with SB3 that's the ban on low dose THC products being sold in Texas, lots to still go here. Lots to still go, absolutely. With THC availability

in Texas. And I do think that, you know, Cameron's been covering this for months now, so go read his coverage. It's very interesting. And even the political side of the, you know, two different bills making their way through the legislature and folks saying, hey, I voted for SB3, let's get this teacup thing figured out. Very interesting. But there are a lot of other bills that we want to talk about too. Let's go into some roundups. We have roundup pieces for all sorts of different policy angles on the website for folks to be able to check out what education bills, border bills, abortion bills, AI or technology bills made it through legislature or did not make it through this legislative session. Cameron and Mary Lee's are going to focus on y'all here. Let's start with education, Cameron. A lot of folks said this was the education

session. A lot of people were saying that. A lot of people. But we've already mentioned school funding, school choice, some other interesting education related bills. Something Mary-Lise has covered in great depth was the Ten Commandments Bill, the Prayer and School Bill. Both will be headed to Governor Gary Gabbits desk. Also Senate Bill 24 which produced a very interesting floor debate which had to do with requiring students in Texas public schools to be educated on the history tactics and consequences of communism. That will be headed to Abbott's

test to be signed into law. There was lots of discussion about eliminating the star test that didn't make it past the finish line. I'm sure we're gonna see that again come up next session. There was HB 6, Teacher Bill of Rights has to do with granting greater authority to public school educators on the issue of school discipline in school and out of school suspensions and then HB 1481 from freshman Caroline Fairley eliminating or rather prohibiting students from using smartphones or personal communication devices in classrooms. That'll also be law soon here in Texas. So lots of very interesting education bills

that are really gonna have a profound impact on how education operates here in the state. So everyone who's listening who has kids or soon to be parents, school choice and public school finance, those are the top lines, but ultimately lots of little nuanced Differences that are going to be happening here in the Texas education system lots of consequential pieces of legislation that may not have been as flashy or Attention grabbing a school choice, but have lots of consequences. That's right. Absolutely Cameron. Thank you Marylis

Let's talk about a number of abortion related bills taken up during the 89th session. Give us a recap on the status of those. Yeah, for sure. So there was a fair number of abortion related bills that were filed this session. Only a handful really caught a lot of attention, right? Because there were other issues such as school choice that really took the front seat during the 89th. But there was a few, as I said, that really took the spotlight. So the first one was the Life and the Mother Act.

And this is Senate Bill 31. We covered it a number of times on this podcast. But this essentially clarifies, seeks to clarify the state's existing abortion laws. It establishes continuing legal education and continuing medical education in order to ensure that we have both our state lawyers and our Texas medical professionals fully aware of what our laws are surrounding abortion

and what their liability looks like when taking care of the patients. So that was life of the Mother Act and that there was definitely different opinions on either side of the aisle about this. But in the end, it was definitely largely a bipartisan bill. It was filed by Senator Brian Hughes in the upper chamber

and then was sponsored in the House by Representative Charlie Garan. So this has been sent to the governor. So this is one of those that successfully made it through the process and now it's up to Governor Greg Abbott's discernment where to go from here. up to Governor Greg Abbott's discernment where to go from here. Another one that was largely a partisan bill was, and this is another one of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick's priorities, but this is Senate Bill 33

by Donna Campbell, Senator Donna Campbell. And this essentially banned taxpayer-funded abortion travel. So taxpayer funds couldn't be used in any shape or form to assist women in getting abortions out of state. And so whether that looks like lodging or food, just certain logistics that might go into that. So it was Senate Bill 33 that did ultimately pass with chambers

and it's also been sent to Abbott and now it's awaiting his decision if he's going to veto, if he's going to sign it into law. And then this, I think this one took the cake for the most controversial abortion related legislation but this is Senate Bill 2080 and this one ultimately never made it out of committee actually. And this was representative Jeff Leach's project here. And its main premise is that it seeks to curb the distribution of chemical abortion pills. And it really cracks down on those that produce and distribute chemical abortion pills into Texas.

It established this private right of action and gave extra powers to the attorney general to prosecute in these cases. And then it also had liability extended for wrongful death of a preborn child, which is a pretty important aspect of this. But this, it got a lot of national attention actually when it had been sitting in the State Affairs Committee for a couple of weeks. People are saying, they're calling on Chairman Ken King

saying, hey, you need to vote this out, it needs to have its time on the floor. And he ultimately did hold a vote on it and it was voted out favorably, but the committee report, Brad tweeted about this, the committee report was never sent to the calendars committee, so it was never brought up on the House floor

because that was the necessary next step. And there's a number of other bills we detail in this piece, but those are kind of the top ones that had everybody's attention in regards to abortion legislation. Absolutely, and go read the rest of Mary-Lise's coverage of the Texan. I'll be checking that out. Cameron will be checking it out. Thanks Mary-Lise. Let's talk about, Cameron,

another rundown border immigration policy. How'd that all wrap up this session? Well Senate Bill 8, like I mentioned and already ran through, don't need to rehash that but I think it's important to mention there was Jocelyn's law, something that our own Holly Hanson covered in depth for us. That would have been a constitutional amendment that would require the detention without bail of illegal aliens. Constitutional amendments require two-thirds support or a hundred votes on the Texas House floor for passage. Republicans were unable to get the necessary amount of Democrats to cross party lines for that. So it ended up dying. Senate Bill 17, the China land bill, again, something we cover quite in depth here at the Texan. People can go check out all the debates that occurred. It's a very interesting bill

to follow this year. Something I haven't mentioned yet, Senate Bill 36, which is again a priority for the Lieutenant Governor. This will establish a Homeland Security Division within the Texas Department of Public Safety aiming to really just centralize planning and coordination as well as until intelligence gathering to bolster Texas's border security efforts something and Brad's covered a lot the budget that included billions 3.3 billion in continued border security funding and this was all really interestingly they took they halved it from the earlier plans and sent half of it to property tax relief interesting okay well I was gonna add here that a lot a lot of this was

aided by the fact of the Donald Trump administration being much more assertive in enforcing immigration law through executive orders and executive actions. And something we've covered a lot here, again, detection is there's been dramatic shifts, dramatic drops, according to the CBP at the border. So there's already been action occurring at the US-Mexico border. It's going to continue to see increased efforts after many of these bills are enacted. So there's gonna be lots of follow-up stories and reporting going on about the actual real-world impact of these bills. So stay tuned to the Texan.News and we'll keep updating people on what happens.

Awesome Cameron. Thank you. Mary-Lise, let's talk about a, I think our first retirement, this at least post-session from a lawmaker specifically happened right as the House was about to gavel out and adjourn Signe Dai. Representative Tony Tinderholt made a big announcement tell us about it. Yes so this was a big announcement that happened just as the Texas house was preparing to gavel out they were crossing all their t's dotting all their i's you know getting ready to finish 89th legislative session and representative Tony Tender-Holt announced that he would be retiring from the Texas House after serving for six terms. And it was definitely a unifying moment for the Texas House before the end of the session because I mean they spent the last few months just you know going at it from the front to the back mic debating each other about

really important pieces of legislation. But this was definitely a moment for folks to come together and to show him a lot of gratitude and to recognize his unifying spirit. That was something a lot of folks from either side had to say about him. He said, he referenced his military experience as a platoon leader, executive officer, he was an attachment commander. He spent 10 years in the US military.

And he said, he referenced this in a speech. He said, arguably my 12 years here have been one of the more difficult combat zones I've had the pleasure of serving in. And everyone, of course, laughed a little bit at that. But a lot of his speech was focused on his family, which is something I think everyone there could appreciate. You could see it on their faces. He talked about his wife and his children.

He said, I'm coming home. I get to be a dad. I don't have to miss practices and dances. And he said that that was the hardest paragraph for him because that's why he's leaving. So he's looking to prioritize his family and that definitely drew a lot of appreciation on the House floor. So, Tenderholt first won his seat back in 2015 at House District 94.

And then, of course, maintaining it through November 2024 election. He defeated, it was Democrat candidate Denise Wilkerson and he won with a 55% of the vote. He said in his retirement speech that he thinks they've accomplished a lot in six sessions, but there's still more work to be done. And I quote, while more Texas GOP priorities passed this session than previously had, there were so many opportunities and so much left to do, just like both sides have said every session.

So of course, he's been, as I said in his first rodeo, he's, he knows that that's the common parting line for the parties. Some of the notable political moves he made during his terms, and you can read more of this in detail on the website, but he ran for House Speaker in 2023. It was the first official challenge to former House Speaker, Dave Phelan. And this was something Representative Nate Schatzlein referenced when he was kind of giving an appreciation speech for Tenderhold. He said, Tony, the first vote I ever took in this chamber was to vote for you to be speaker. We were only 73 votes away. We were so close. And yeah, multiple folks from both parties, representative

Jolanda Jones, representative Harold Dutton, came up there and just talked about how much they appreciated Tenderholt and his service. And everyone really recognized what a pivotal player he is in the Texas House and that it really won't be the same without him serving there. He's been a huge mover and shaker there in the Texas House. And this is, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this, it's not in the piece. But shortly after he announced his candidacy for a Tarrant County commissioner, uh, it's not in the piece cause that happened a little bit after, but that followed shortly. So a huge change with the Texas house for sure.

Absolutely. And notable that he's now running for office locally. Be a little closer to him. Uh, thanks for your coverage, Mary Elise. Okay. Cameron coming to you in to you in the span of a few hours. This is like a wild story. Boomerangs around quite a bit. I saw a lawsuit filed by the DOJ, Trump's DOJ notably, challenging a law in Texas related to in-state tuition

for illegal immigrants. Yeah, two parties that are usually aligned on issues. Specifically related to immigration. Specifically related to immigration. Rare instance where the federal government was taking the state to court. And it was on this issue of the Texas DREAM Act, which was passed in 2001, which is now in Texas Education Code, which in essence allows for non-citizens, illegal immigrants who reside in Texas to receive in-state tuition. And the DOJ was arguing that those Texas Education Codes were in, quote,

blatant conflict with federal law. We saw this lawsuit announced. Like you mentioned, just a few hours later, there was a tweet from Governor Greg Abbott that showed that Texas is permanently enjoined from providing in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. Shortly after that, we saw a press release from we saw a press release from Attorney General Kim Paxton where he mentioned he filed a joint motion with the US Department of Justice in the federal court in ultimately succeeding in stopping this law from being able to provide in-state tuition for illegal aliens So it seems as though the Attorney General was working alongside the DOJ in this instance. He mentions filing a joint

motion with them. So as of now, these education codes in Texas are no longer going to be able to be enforced. And what's interesting is we actually covered this issue during the session because there was a bill filed that would have eliminated this program. There was a bill filed, the one that we did cover, that actually did get a hearing in the House Higher Education Committee that would have narrowed the requirements for this program. But all that sort of null and void now with this order coming through,

I'm sure we're gonna get some reactions. Maybe we'll get a bill filed to reinstate these education codes in some shape or form next session. But two years away from that. We'll see what happens. And likely not be political backing for it to pass. But regardless, there probably will be a bill filed. We'll see what happens. And likely not the political back. But regardless, there probably will be a bill filed. You're probably exactly right.

Cameron, thanks for covering. Very interesting. Kind of like seems adversarial, but ends up being coordinated. One of those. Yeah. It's something where there's probably a lot of conversations going on behind the scenes, something out of the public eye. Um, and the way it wrapped up so rapidly where there was the announcement of the lawsuit

and then the resolution of that complaint in the span of six hours shows this was not something that came out of the blue. So maybe some information will come out regarding that. Maybe people who have an inside track into some of these different groups involved. Who knows? We'll see. But just a very interesting case. Absolutely. Cameron, thank you. Bradley, last but not least, let's talk about an update related to the state's fossil fuel divestment list. We've covered this. You've covered this extensively for

several years now. Blackrock being the key to a lot of this conversation. What happened this week? Yeah, so Blackrock has been kind of the face of ESG in Texas, at least by Republicans who hate ESG. It is one of the world's largest asset managing firms. They handle investments for all kinds of people, companies, entities, and it's just a massive, massive company. But back when the list, which was created by SB13 in 2021, when that was created, BlackRock

was placed at the top of the list. Now, it was alphabetical, I think, so there's that, but also Dan Patrick had called for them to be placed at the top, very top of the list. So, they've been the face of this. They've also been fighting against it for a while. There are some of these firms that are like, yeah, we divest from oil and gas. Heck yeah, BlackRock's never been that. They've also said, pointed to the fact that, well, yeah, we divest from oil and gas. Heck yeah. BlackRock's never been that. They've also pointed to the fact that, well, they have billions of dollars in holdings in oil and gas companies, especially in Texas.

So it's been this PR fight between them and the Comptroller's office. And you have Larry Fink saying one thing to Europeans and overseas and another thing to Europeans and overseas and another thing to Texas investors, right? I think it should be pointed out that BlackRock is trying, because they're so big, they operate all over the globe, they're trying to navigate choppy waters

both in Europe and here, trying to satisfy two entirely different worldviews, right? Not just worldviews, but regulatory environments as well. Right. And so even though they're saying certain things, when they're saying certain things in Europe, Texas officials are taking that into account here and how they judge whether BlackRock should be a part of it. Now, they did leave the Climate 100 and the Net Zero Asset managers alliance to like just broad commitments to

Get to net zero carbon whatever They left those along with some other pretty big financial firms and that happened a couple few months ago so anyway, that's a long lead up to saying they're now been removed from the state's divestment list and Comptroller Glenn Hager announced it in a statement to me. He said, my goal from the moment we started this process has been to cultivate a more intellectually honest conversation.

And once that conversation could take place, I hoped the result would be changes in policy and practice. We never set out to punish any of these firms. And the hope was always that any firm we included on the list would eventually take steps to ensure they were removed. Following the lead of many of its competitors, BlackRock has finally done that. While it took the company longer than others in the financial sector to make the shift, the end results are what matter. BlackRock's President, Global Head of Corporate Affairs, John John Kelly told us in a comment,

we appreciate the comptroller's resolution of this matter. BlackRock is proud to help millions of Texans retire with dignity and on behalf of clients, invest over $4 billion in corporations, local governments, energy. $400 billion, right? Yeah, that's what I said. I said $4 billion. $400 billion, thank you. And corporations, local governments,

energy infrastructure, and other private assets throughout the state, these investments support the continued growth of the Texas economy. Under the law, not only could you not engage in contracts with companies on the list, but you also had to divest any pension dollars and any other kinds of investments from the state or from BlackRock and so

Literally billions of dollars that were invested in BlackRock or through BlackRock has been have been pulled over the last few years Now that can be reinvested through the company the company has Partnered with the state on attracting investment to the Texas Energy Fund loan program that's trying to attract more natural gas plant investment. They've done various other things to try and get on the state's good side, and they finally got what they've been looking for for a while, which is off this list. And we'll see if they stay there. I imagine they will stay off unless things take a turn. But this coordinated effort between red states

across the country has worked. And it's really provided a counteraction to what had been developing for a long time in the slow march through financial institutions of the more progressive ESG focused types of political policy and it's starting to work and see if it has any more effect but they were the headline for this list when it came out and now they're off it. Very interesting. Yeah I think what I was just thinking this as Brad was talking like these investment firms they always

have like evil villain type names. They had just have bad branding like maybe they changed their name to something else like why do they have to be BlackRock? You know maybe Ponies and Puppies. Ponies and Puppies. Ponies and Puppies Investment Firm. You know, that would make people, oh, they don't sound too bad. Totally. Totally. I think Ponies and Puppies Investment Firm needs to be the next big mover. And just imagine our elected officials saying,

Ponies and Puppies Investment Firm needs to stop with the ESG. We're boycotting ponies and puppies. I would never boycott ponies and puppies for the record. I'm giving out this advice. Let the record reflect. I'm giving out this advice for free here. Let's make sure they get, yeah, a little bit. We'll make sure they hear this, that this reaches their ears.

Thank you. Larry Fink, if you're listening. So good. Let's move on to our Tweetery. Our Tweetery, Tweetery? Tweetery. You had trouble there. I did. Thank you for noticing. Tweetery section here and talk about something that caught our eye on Twitter this week or X. Cameron I think you're the only one who subscribes to saying X in the office. I mix it up. You're by far the most accurate though. I yeah I try but it's hard it's like an X post. Also X it doesn't roll off the tongue like it is not an easy. Well because

when it was Twitter it was a tweet. Yep. Now that it's X it's a post we need we need something to replace the tweet. You post everywhere. Same tweet denoted the platform you were talking about. It was so succinct, so easy. And now we don't have that. It's very annoying to me. We can brainstorm that.

Yeah. Yeah. Bring your branding prowess to that conversation. Tweeter. Let's get back to it. Mary Elise, I want to start with you. What did, uh, what'd you see on Twitter this week? Okay.

I saw a meme posted by Elon Musk and this is, I'm also using this as an excuse to plug the 40 a little bit. Woo. Um, but so Elon Musk has been going after the budget reconciliation bill, uh, which everyone has been calling the one big, beautiful bill, or at least Republicans have been calling that because that's what Trump dubbed it. But I saw this meme that Elon Musk posted, and it's probably a meme that some people are familiar with, where there's a train coming in the background and there's an empty school

bus over the tracks, and then the next picture is the train barreling through and the school bus is thrown to the side and this meme is depicting the school bus is money Doge has saved the government and then Trump's big beautiful bill is depicted as the train knocking the bus off the racks off the tracks so yeah Elon Musk is not holding back. And I'm just, I'm finding this so interesting to watch it unfold between him and Trump. But yeah, we, we talked about that a little bit in the 40s. So go check that out. And the meme is not in the 40, but the sentiment behind is, you know what, I'm, I'm pro adding memes. Well, I'm not gonna regret saying this. Can't wait to look at me. I'm pro adding memes to newsletters if they pertain to the subject matter. Which this one would. Yeah. I'm just saying. Next week.

Subscribe to the Texan for access to all of our newsletters, including the 40, which is awesome. Mary-Lisa, why is it called the 40? I think we, I think, I love the name of this newsletter and I think it goes over people's heads sometimes. Understandably so, but I love the name of your newsletter. It is referencing our Texas delegation in Washington, D.C., those 40 representing us. Although I would add that the number is currently fluctuating because Congressman Sylvester Turner passed away a few months ago, but that is the general, that

is what the name is referencing is our Texas delegation in Washington. That's right, the congressmen and women and the senators from Texas combined. Yep. Yields 40. Yeah. Good stuff. Mary-Lise, thank you. Cameron. Oh. What do you got? Explosive story here. Texas man says he broke into Mar-a-Lago to share the

gospel with Trump and marry his granddaughter. So lots to consider. Lots to consider. Early Tuesday morning, 23-year-old Anthony Thomas Reyes was arrested for trespassing at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump's Florida property, but he told the cops he had a good reason to be there. Reyes allegedly told law enforcement that he had hopped over Mar-a-Lago's walls to speak with Trump about the quote gospel and then married Kai Madison Trump, Donald Trump Jr.'s daughter, who turned 18 last month according to an arrest report reviewed my multiple

outlets I just want to know how does this even happen the president's property isn't there secret service there or even private security at this property like and yeah it's just just a funny story that I mentioned it he's a man on a mission man on a mission no he had a goal he tried to accomplish it yeah did he succeed no no but yeah a dream and he believed dream and he believed it's very true Cameron. Um, Bradley, what do you got for us? Well, the primaries are almost upon us and we're going to see quite a fight over censures of especially house members, house Republicans, um, attempt to close primaries, those centers, there will be, attempt to close primaries,

those censures, there will be an attempt to keep people off the ballot which will yield a massive court fight, but it all stems from, or most of it stems from, irritation about what doesn't pass and how much Texas GOP priority bills don't pass the legislature, particularly in the House. It's been a talking point each of the last few cycles, and it will be again. But I thought it was interesting that there was a bit of a twist in messaging that came out from ye olde Texas GOP. They touted the 89th legislative session.

And specifically being very happy about the 37 legislative priority bills that passed both chambers. That will be presumably signed into law by the governor. That doesn't necessarily jive with some of the attitude that we're seeing online from many of these people who want primaries, want to oust some of the Republican incumbents, right? The first of which being the Speaker of the House. But now in past years you've had the Texas GOP and its chairman openly lambasting the House and House leadership. Well, not this time. There are, it's being touted.

And so how is this going to play, not just in the primary, but within Texas GOP circles among the activists, let's say half of whom were very angry and upset with how things went this session, and you can see it online, and then others who are happy but more quiet about it. You know the statement didn't didn't name the speaker or anyone else that I saw in it, but it is interesting and notable that this is a significant shift in the way post-session postmortemsems have, or session post-mortems have been, you know, issued by the Republican Party. So.

And what this means for the chairman's race. Like we have a convention a year from now and what that will look like for, you know, if Chairman George decides to run again, if somebody challenges him due to the fact that he was in their mind too supportive of you know the House or the legislature or whatever that looks like it'll be very interesting. Well I know we're at the end here but we let off the podcast talking about the big winner for this session. Going off of what you were just talking about how some people might say that the this session could have been even more conservative passing certain pieces of

legislation. Was there one bill in your guys's minds that missed getting passed like one thing that you think these conservative activists, Republicans in the state really missed out on one piece of legislation that got caught up in the legislative process, didn't get to the finish line. Well, from that perspective, there's probably a couple that come to mind. There's the couple bills that died in the Senate at the deadline. I think we talked about this on SFR, but the adjourning when they should have recessed and the Daniel Alders library bill that died because of that.

I think the biggest one though that didn't pass was the taxpayer-funded lobbying ban. And that was, most of the RPT legislative priorities are pretty broad categories, and so you have a lot of stuff that can fit into it. That one is one of the few that's pretty straightforward and that didn't pass again even though you have a speaker who is personally very much in favor of banning that practice. You know also notable that the Senate they watered it down significantly through their chamber which which, you know, that goes against the general perception of the Senate being the one that passes all the most conservative stuff. They watered it down. It wasn't just Robert Nichols that did it either.

There were other Republicans that voted for it, for the amendment. Could it be a win then if you'd rather have a water down bill not pass rather than having a water down bill pass? Because if something passes but it doesn't actually affect the things that you want it to, then they're not going to address it again. They're just wipe their hands clean, right? Right.

I think that's the argument. I think the argument is that something's better than nothing right so but then to your point and I was saying this leading up to the school choice fight is how strong of a proposal like because I do feel as though if there was a for example school choice proposal or a tax refunded lobbying proposal that passed that was not as strong as folks who were in favor of that legislation wanted, then it would have a very hard time getting a stronger piece of legislation across the finish line next time because all the political capital had been used to pass

those pieces of legislation that were weaker. And maybe there would not be the appetite from state leaders to kind of put their weight behind it when they can tout it on the campaign trail, right? That's like naturally how that happens. So I think there's definitely some truth to that but you know it depends on the issue depends on how strong or how weak the bills viewed by you know the folks who are supportive of it but it's interesting those are kind of the two arguments though yeah it does this set up a mutiny at convention next year against Abraham George well the chairman race is always very interesting and fun.

I mean, there are people that are very upset with him over how he's handled this session and he has tried to, I would say, call more balls and strikes and not just lay siege to the legislature trying to, he's tried to get stuff he wants done. And I think, you know, if there are 37 bills that fit their priorities, then how can you argue with the results on that, right? However, you still have a speaker that a lot of the, especially most vocal activists in the Republican Party, can't stand. And there's a lot of politics of cooties at play here where, well, now it's Abraham George is compromised because he's been, you know, friendlier to the speaker that we all hate. Right. And, but this is where you have, which we get into, we get into this on SFR, but you

have strange bedfellows right now with TLR going after Speaker Burroughs and TLR being somebody that a lot of the grassroots folks have been ardently opposed to in recent years, particularly after the impeachment of attorney general in Paxton. So it's very complex right now. And I think we'll see the dust settle more over the summer as we head into the primaries. I'll be very, very curious to see these political fault lines shift because I think that I think the ground is ripe for some shifting. Yeah, I'll be interested to see if someone emerges or if George tries to really establish an identity for the Texas Republican Party moving forward because it seems like, like you mentioned, there's all these different groups that maybe are on the side of these grassroots activists now, but maybe they were against them previously or vice versa.

And there's these shifting sands of allegiances right now within Texas Republican politics. There needs to be a clear vision moving forward. Is that gonna be done by an elected official like Abbott or Patrick or even Burroughs himself? Or could it be George or will it be someone else? But it seems like someone needs to come out and set a vision for Texas Republicans going forward, at least in my mind. Well, and then you get into the philosophical breakdown. We have a more, a party that's becoming more populist, and this is a large reason why, the only reason far from it that TLR the business community the Chamber of Commerce crowd is on the outs for the people that run the

The party apparatus and they have been for a while, but you have these two things In contention, it's a power struggle over. Oh, yeah, what is the Republican? Not just the party itself, but Republican world generally in Texas. And it's a constant tug of war. Eventually people on one side get tired and flip to the other side, right? It happens. And this next cycle is going to be fascinating. I think I said this on SFR, but that thread of TLR versus the trial lawyers playing into the cycle next year is going to be the most interesting theme to follow. Put right behind that what happens on from the Republican Party of Texas

perspective when they're clearly trying not to just blow legislators up because they're relatively happy with what they got, right? But there's a lot of people within the ranks that aren't happy and would never have been happy because the speaker that they didn't want got elected, right? And that's the original sin for them and there's no fixing that and so Yeah, it's there's a lot to it. I have two thoughts that I will say before I stop a piney and y'all are welcome to a pine more. But my two thoughts finally here, one, the house did become

significantly more conservative this session. And so that criticism of the house being less conservative, it pre you know, previously, historically didn't work as well this session, just because of who in large part, the governor supported in the primaries and who other folks, other advocacy groups and grassroots organizations supported in the primaries and who other folks, other advocacy groups and grassroots organizations supported in the primaries and were successful in bringing them into the legislature, right?

I mean, we talk about somebody like Tony Tinderholt being influential this session when last session, he had a very small group of folks that he was aligned with and this session had dozens that were a part of his cohort, very different. So the House even from that perspective moves to the right. Secondarily, you also have, I mean, I had another thought that was so good. Oh yeah, the bipartisan nature of the trial lawyers and the TLR of it all is changing. That is not so much just TLR being pro-republican in a broad sense and the trial lawyers being pro-democrat in a broad sense.

That in and of itself is changing and that will play into the primary significantly. And you know TLR they jumped on the Abbott bandwagon, not entirely, but like many of their candidates that they supported were also Abbott candidates supporting school choice. Well a lot of those candidates became officials who then voted against TLR's biggest thing on the floor, voted to water it down You know Mark LaHood who's been under fire quite a bit with this like I put out the email They named him specifically in addition to the speaker He got three hundred thousand dollars from TLR. TLR helped him put him into office

So they've kind of been the author of their own destruction to some degree here. There's also, like I said, just a philosophical change. There is a more populist bent to much of the Republican Party, and that aligns more with trial lawyers, trial attorneys, and helping the little guy get back at the big bad business that screwed him over. And that doesn't align as much with the business community who wants to avoid hefty lawsuits, right? It's these cross wires that's just causing a mess,

but a fascinating mess to watch unfold. And it's gonna blow up even more next year. And of course we're simplifying things by saying all of this TLR certainly are supportive Democrats in the past. Oh, yeah, like this is not as simple as we know We're developing very broadly and speaking very broadly about the political makeup of the house In the way it did shows you that the makeup of the house has significantly changed and to the right.

Okay, gentlemen, thank you. Mary Elise, thank you. It's, um, a transition to not have another gal here in person with me, but I'm glad you're at least, you're still here just in a different way. You know, I'll be honest, you're really cutting out right now, but I was grateful to join even though I'm remote and I appreciate y'all's patience. Bless you. Technical difficulties, folks, but you sound great.

We're looking good. All the files will upload and that will be our test as long as everything works out. Well, folks, thanks for joining another edition of the Weekly Roundup and we'll catch you next week. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want more of our stories, subscribe to The Texan at thetexan.news. Follow us on social media for the latest in Texas politics and send any questions for our team to our mailbag by DMing us on Twitter or shooting us an email to editor at thetexan.news. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God

bless Texas.