The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - March 17, 2023

Episode Date: March 17, 2023

Get a FREE “Fake News Stops Here” mug when you buy an annual subscription to The Texan: https://go.thetexan.news/mug-fake-news-stops-here-2022/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=weekly_roundup 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.  This week on The Texan’s Weekly Roundup, the team discusses: Congressman Chip Roy endorsing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantisA Texas lawmaker filing a bill to increase penalties for those who commit assault resulting in paralysisThe Senate voting to restore the felony offense for illegal votingTexas Senate school choice plan would grant thousands of dollars per studentThe House proposing to create a “Border Protection Unit” and invoke the constitutional “invasion” clauseThe Texas Legislature considering a lightning rod local preemption billFive election reform bills receiving hearings in the Senate State Affairs CommitteeTexas Rep. Nate Schatzline proposing an age verification requirement for websites hosting explicit materialThe House and Senate’s fight over appraisals and exemptions in their property tax relief discussionsA lawmaker filing a bill to allow minors in attendance at drag shows to sue the performersPresident Biden issuing an executive order to curb gun violence, promoting “red flag” laws and universal background checksThe Texas State Police warning residents to avoid traveling to Mexico after two Americans were murdered there last week

Happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie DeLulo here, and welcome back to the Texans Weekly Roundup podcast. This week, the team discusses Congressman Chip Roy endorsing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Texas lawmaker filing a bill to increase penalties for those who commit assault resulting in paralysis, the Senate voting to restore the felony offense for illegal voting, a Senate school choice plan that grants thousands of dollars per student. The House proposing to create a border protection unit and invoke the constitutional invasion

clause. The legislature considering a lightning rod local preemption bill. Five election reform bills receiving hearings in the Senate State Affairs Committee. Texas Representative Nate Schatzlein proposing an age verification requirement for websites hosting explicit material. The House and Senate's fight over appraisals and exemptions in their property tax relief discussions. A lawmaker aiming to allow

minors in attendance at drag shows to sue the performers. President Biden issuing an executive order to curb gun violence, promoting red flag laws and universal background checks, and the Texas State Police warning residents to avoid traveling to Mexico after two Americans were murdered there last week. As always, if you have questions for our team, DM us on Twitter or email us at editor at thetexan.news. We'd love to answer your questions on a future podcast. Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode.

Howdy folks, Mackenzie here with Brad, Cameron, Matt, and Hayden on another episode. Gentlemen, thanks for joining. I have a question. Daylight savings time. All week this week, I have felt very tired and off kilter and it's ridiculous because it's only an hour difference but i also think allergens are really high this year brad you so kindly blowing your nose before we started the podcast is what made me think of that do y'all also like i feel lethargic more lethargic this week because of the the time change and maybe the allergens but i don't feel like I'm that sensitive. My allergies have been bothering me. Yeah. Do you feel more like,

how quickly did y'all get over daylight savings? Well, oh, sorry. Well, it was the initial shock. Yeah. The first 48 hours. Yeah. But then... Yes, it is very nice.

I agree with that. After after work go for a walk you know because in this office we have no windows so when we leave the office you get smacked in the face oh my gosh the outside world yeah there's nothing worse than leaving the office and it being dark by the time you get home. Yeah. If not before you leave the office. And that's miserable. Yeah.

So I'm a big fan of daylight saving time. I always forget, but I do know it. That piece of information is in my brain, but I don't know it. Are you pro or against daylight saving time? Very pro. Not to get political, because I know it's very political, this topic, in the Texas legislature and legislatures across the country.

And the federal level, too. I kind of wish we didn't do it. They may have done it this session. Although, Congress would have to permit it, regardless. Go to the Texas.news to read more about it. And gosh darn it, you can't cover it anymore because you just took a position. It's not like it's a life or death issue.

I am pro-ending daylight saving time. Anybody else willing to take a stand today? I have no strong feelings either way. I think it's a little bit fun to change the clocks, but I probably wouldn't even notice if we ended daylight savings time. Yeah. I would be pro if I didn't have to reset a bunch of clocks. That's the thing. I get in my car, clock is wrong. My oven, clock is wrong my oven clock is wrong it's just an inconvenience yeah and then you forget the one random micro like with the one random appliance it's always a microwave i still haven't changed the clock in my

my family lives in arizona and they don't observe daylight saving time and there's not much difference the only problem is i can never remember what time of the year they're an hour or two hours behind like it's very difficult for me to remember i'll call and be disappointed that it they're no they're not awake and that early in the morning you know like it it changes based on us here in texas and their time never changes so there's a little bit of like logistics that make it just picturing one of your siblings groggy looking at 7 a.m and i'm like guys i've been up for a few hours yeah anyway okay well on that note let's get into the news this week brad a surprising 2024 presidential endorsement from texas came out this week what happened yeah very surprising. I would say it was Congressman Chip Roy. He sent out an email to his campaign list in which he endorsed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. but um it's i don't know why that was so funny it's pretty much an open secret that he's at least strongly considering it if he's not already you know laid the groundwork for an ad he was running

ads in iowa yeah right like so it's probably gonna happen uh especially if someone like chip royce coming out and taking a stand on it, taking a position. I would say that's a pretty good indicator that DeSantis is going to jump in. But of course, things change. Who knows what is going to happen? But in his endorsement, Roy said, America needs a leader who will truly defend her and empower the people against the destructive force of unrestrained government and corporate excess, profligate spending, and woke cultural indoctrination.

That leader is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. As I said, DeSantis is not announced, despite the basically open secret that he is going to run. But if he does, he'll join a field currently of three people. If he joins, it'll be four. Of former President Donald Trump. He was the first to announce. He did it right after the midterm election.

Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and the UN ambassador during the Trump administration or one of the UN ambassadors during that. And then Vivek Ramaswamy, who is a former pharmaceutical company executive. He started his own pharmaceutical company. And since probably 2019, he's been pretty big on political commentary, talking about ESG, hammering that, hammering COVID lockdowns, things like that. So pretty far from what we saw in 2016 with just the sheer amount of people. But who knows how many people will ultimately jump in. Yeah, absolutely. So did Roy say anything about Trump directly?

No. No, but the closest thing he came to doing so was saying DeSantis has also proven his ability to win at the ballot box time and time again when other Republicans were faltering in key races. Governor DeSantis provided a positive vision for the future with prudent conservative action. The result was crystal clear. Republicans enjoyed sweeping historic performances statewide. So the two being Roy and Trump have a checkered past. The reason I think a lot of people could rightly assume that that is at least tangentially related to the former president is that, um, during the, the lackluster,

at least lackluster for national Republicans midterm last year, uh, Trump, multiple Trump candidates, especially in the Senate races did not win. I think only one of his endorsed candidates in an open seat, uh, won the race. That was. Vance in Ohio.

Now his candidates performed very well in the primary. They got out of there. But after the lackluster midterm results, there was a lot of displeasure with the former president. But that seems to have kind of tempered out since then. But as far as Roy and Trump go, the reason, the root of the disagreement between them is probably the 2020 election. Roy voted to certify the presidential electors and objected to the results of the congressional elections to prove a point about the selective nature of congressional republican strategy in contesting the 2020 results he said that on the floor got a lot of press for it um and got a lot of criticism from the former president and then after that trump even suggested roy would lose his 2022 primary which he did not uh roy won that pretty easily. And yeah, so I think it's while this endorsement is a surprise because DeSantis has not jumped in, I would say it's not really a surprise that Roy did not support Trump. However, he did say he will support whomever Republicans nominate in 2024.

There you go. Brad, thanks for your coverage. Hayden, the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee passed legislation to increase the possible sentence for aggregated assault with a deadly weapon. Tell us about the text of this bill. There are some changes to state law that are just a few words, but they can have a profound effect. And I think that summarizes part of what is proposed in House Bill 28, which would amend the Code of Criminal Procedure to, or excuse me, the Penal Code, to make aggravated assault with a deadly weapon a first-degree felony if it results in a traumatic brain or spine injury to another that results in a persistent vegetative state or irreversible paralysis. This bill by Representative Shelby Slauson is designed to increase the maximum sentence available when someone suffers a bodily injury that leaves them paralyzed or, as the text of the bill says, in a vegetative state.

The bill passed 9-0 in committee, so there was no opposition to the legislation, and it would, as I mentioned, increase the possible sentence for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, which currently can carry a sentence of two to 20 years in the state prison and a $10,000 fine. And then, of course, probation is always on the table for criminal cases. A first-degree felony carries a punishment of five to 99 years or life imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. So it would dramatically increase the punishment range available to prosecutors and judges in cases such as these. And it is named the Todd-Hoglund Act after some of the witnesses that we're about to discuss.

Yeah. So who testified in favor of the bill? The testimony that was heard in favor of this bill was some of the more powerful testimony that i've heard when observing committee hearings there are a lot of people who come to the capital come to austin of all types of political stripes and they consider themselves victims but these crime victim survivors were truly survivors of the most extraordinary type of violence, the type that everyone prays that they never have a family member suffer. But Brandy Todd is paralyzed from the waist down after suffering a random assault by an individual in Erath County who, and I'm debating how much detail to get into, but more or less she was stabbed and her spinal cord was virtually severed. And she is now paralyzed from

the waist down because of that attack. And she described some of what her family has endured, some of the expense that she has had to, that she has had some of the money that she's had to spend to adjust to life after this assault. And she concluded her remarks by saying, quote, I'm asking you to stand for those who can't stand for themselves. The man who stabbed me will be free in seven years, and I serve the life sentence. It was a closing statement that is a maximum security facility, but he is scheduled to be released as early as 2030. And frankly, that's the latest he'll be released because he was given the maximum sentence. And it occurred to me as I was writing about this the other day, felons are not necessarily disqualified from social security benefits. So he may get out of prison just in time to start collecting federal checks and

retire in a lakefront somewhere. I don't know what felons do after they leave prison, but there is no registry for people who do these types of things. We have a sex offender registry, but we don't have a registry for people who sever other people's spinal cords. So he will be released at the age of 62 or earlier. Another witness, Jessica Hogland, has lost her daughter after she became fully paralyzed because she was shot in the face by an individual who also received only a 20-year sentence. And she said, quote, I'm asking you to do something to get peace of mind and a sense of justice for future victims and their families. The offender that hurt my daughter received a 20-year sentence, and he could probably be out in just 10 years. Once he's released, he will then go back and proceed with his life like normal, whereas his actions caused lifelong damage

and pain, end quote. And as I mentioned, her daughter has tragically passed away. So very powerful testimony in favor of this bill, which passed the committee unanimously. What are the next steps? Last session, this bill also passed criminal jurisprudence unanimously, and it was put on the calendar for consideration, but the House did not get to it in time to consider it on the floor. The Calendars Committee has the same option this time. They can schedule the bill for floor consideration, place it on the general state calendar, but that is no guarantee that they'll get to it. There is also a Senate companion to this bill, Senate Bill 598 by Senator Birdwell.

He's carrying this proposal in the Senate. Thanks for your coverage. Matt, legislation by Senator Brian Hughes passed this week in the Senate restoring the offense of illegal voting to a felony. What is the background on this law? Senator Hughes passed Senate Bill 2 through the Senate, increasing the offense of illegal voting, which includes things like

voting someone else's ballot, voting in multiple elections at the same time, or voting when you know you are prohibited from doing so. Examples of this would be you're a convicted felon, you're a foreign national, etc., etc. The increase was up to a third-degree felony from a Class A misdemeanor. Now, why was the offense reduced? Last session, an amendment by Representative Steve Allison was accepted by the House to the election integrity legislation, which numerous reps said that they didn't either read the amendment before accepting it or were not told it contained this provision, otherwise they would have not accepted it. There's a lot of stories about how it kind of got slipped on, and a lot of them vary. Long story short, they did, and it passed into the final bill.

After that, during the special session, after the regular session, the Senate passed a fix, but the House refused to take the issue back up, and it has remained in state law during the past two years. Now, Democrats stood in unison this week against Hughes' bill, arguing numerous hypothetical situations, trying to poke holes in the bill, which Hughes argued back just on every point, but would also repeat time and time again that for the past 50 years, this was the law in Texas. And we didn't have the problems that the Democrats were suggesting during their arguments. With those arguments being completed, Hughes moved passage on the bill, and in two straight days, it passed a second and third reading, and the bill now heads over to the House. Presently, Representative Steve Toth has filed an identical bill, as well as five other reps filing similar bills to correct the fix. It's unclear right now who will take it up in the House, but we'll continue monitoring it and see where it goes.

Absolutely. Thank you, Matt. Cameron, the highly anticipated school choice plan was finally revealed by the Senate last week, but too late to be on the podcast. So let's talk about it now. What are some of the details? So, yes, this came out late on Friday last week and we were rushing to get it out, but we got it out first. It was really fun. And Brad did help out a lot with that. Cameron beat everybody. It was awesome. Y'all killed it. So some of the details of it.

It'll allow $8,000 for students moving from public schools to private schools and includes a hold harmless provision for rural school districts that were concerned about how this program would have a financial impact on them. And so students will be eligible for this new program if they are currently enrolled in a public school, they attended a public school for at least 90% of the previous year, or are attending pre-K. Private and homeschool students will not be eligible. So meaning if they are currently attendants of a private school or they've been exclusively homeschooled. These educational savings accounts will be supervised by the state comptroller in tandem with a newly formed organization called the Educational Assistance Organization. And so this bracketing strategy that's caused some controversy will be in effect for the rural school districts with fewer than 20,000 students,

and they will receive this hold harmless payment of $10,000 in state funding for each student who decides to leave the district. Okay. So there was an additional parental rights bill associated with the proposal you just talked about. Tell us about that. Yeah. So this parental rights portion says that it leaves the moral and religious upbringing of the child up to the parents and allows parents to transfer their children between school districts if seats are available. And school districts would not be able to withhold information regarding students from the parents, and they will have an opportunity to review instructional materials if they are able to get 25% of the parents to sign a petition for access. Individual parents will have an opportunity to

file local grievances with a proposed procedure. If a grievance is filed in regards to critical race theory or the sexual instruction in the schools, then the TEA will conduct an internal hearing. And the bill also prohibits the state board of education from adopting any sexual orientation or sexual identity curriculum into the curriculum. There was, in addition to that, another education-focused bill filed along with those proposals. Tell us what this last one would do. It will also include supplements for teachers and districts with less than 20,000 students, as well as mentorship and residency programs. Teachers will be able to receive funding for bilingual teaching certifications, and they will receive tuition-free pre-K for their own children. What was also interesting is there was a provision that will allow teachers the discretion to remove students from the classroom for disruptive behavior.

And the teachers will have to submit a written report to the principal. And then there will be written consent to bring the student back into the classroom after the removal. There you go, Cameron. Well done covering that issue. Hayden, Representative Matt Schaefer introduced a bill to legislatively declare an invasion on the border and set up a border protection unit. What are some of the highlights of this bill? different government outlines for handling border policy. And the border protection unit is probably the most prominent in the bill. But it would create a unit within the department of public safety that is akin to the state having its own border patrol. And according to speaker Phelan, who has backed this bill,

it would be designed to relieve the National Guardsmen and other law enforcement personnel that have been on the border with Operation Lone Star pursuing border security efforts. This legislation would create a border patrol chief in the state of Texas that would be appointed by the governor, and it contains strict severability clauses. So the legislation prepares itself to be contested in the courts by more or less saying that if any portion of the bill is stricken by the courts, that the remainder of the bill will remain in effect. And it has an inspector general's office established as well to oversee the Border Patrol unit to ensure that the unit is spending taxpayer dollars wisely. But the centerpiece of this bill is it invokes the invasion clause of the U.S. Constitution.

We've talked about this. I feel like a broken record at times. We've talked about the invasion argument extensively on this podcast, so I won't regale everyone with the complexities of that now. But it takes what Governor Abbott has done and puts it into state law with regard to Article 1, Section 10. and it says that Texas is being invaded and cannot delay responding to the so-called invasion, like numerous counties have done passing their own documents. It also creates a legislative oversight committee that would advise the Speaker and the Lieutenant Governor and other portions of the legislature on border security policy.

And it would create a state version of the Title 42 program for future COVID-19 emergencies or if there's a vaccination requirement put in place. So those are some of the mechanics of Representative Schaefer's bill. What were some of the comments in support of the bill and who came out in support of the bill? Well, Speaker Phelan, as I mentioned, he stated his support for the bill. He said, addressing our state's border and humanitarian crisis is a must-pass issue for the Texas House this year. And I thank Representatives Guillen and Schaefer for filing House Bills 7 and 20 respectively, which when combined will lead to a safer Texas that overall reduces the cost to taxpayers." And HB 7 refers to the bill that

Representative Guillen filed, and of course he represents a border district, that would provide the funding mechanism for Schaefer's bill, and it would set up special court programs to handle some of the legal complexities that would go with the state having its own border patrol or border protection force. Schaefer and Guillen put out a statement together. They said, quote, this bold new approach for securing our border will require us to come together in the coming weeks to help achieve the goal shared by us all, keeping Texans safe, end quote. But of course, there were some unfavorable comments about the bill as well. Representative Trey Martinez Fisher, on behalf of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said, quote, Texans deserve to have solutions created and bills authored by folks whose knowledge of the border goes beyond what's covered by Tucker Carlson on Fox News. Spicy quote.

Definitely. He said, instead, the extremist author of this bill likely knows more about the border with Oklahoma than with Mexico living more than 500 miles away in Tyler. So some pretty strong comments against this bill. When I was editing that piece, I was reading those quotes for the first time and they were, I loved them. I love a spicy quote and that gave everything that needed. I mean, just objectively, they did a good job with that statement. Yeah, 100%. Thank you, Hayden, for your coverage. And we'll continue to watch what happens there.

It was a long-awaited proposal, to say the least. So we're excited to have details. Yeah, Phelan had teased this for a while. And he said that it will challenge federal law. Was it innovative? Is that the word he used to describe it? He said it would be innovative. Yeah.

We'll see. We'll see. There you go thank you hayden brad this week the state uh affairs committee in the house held a hearing on chairman dustin burroughs lightning rod of a local preemption bill how'd that go so it was very lengthy at least as far as hearings go for something that is not you know one of the top issues in the legislature like we saw literally hours and hours and hours of testimony on the elections bill last session multiple times because of the specials so it wasn't like that but it was still

lengthy and quite heated and especially for this early in session. And so Burroughs' HB 2127, I think we discussed it on a previous podcast, but it would prohibit localities from passing regulations that exceed state law in certain specific codes. Not everything, just certain codes that they lay out in the bill. It would also allow certain people to sue localities who violate that provision and waives governmental immunity for it. So at the beginning of the hearing, boroughs introduced a committee sub. Often this happens because of feedback gotten after bills filed. They may find issues, holes in the bill. They try and fix that, introduce that in committee.

So this had three main tweaks to it. It added the property and business and commerce codes to the list of those that would be subject to the preemption. I think property one, Burroughs said specifically, was added at the behest of apartment associations. There's a lot of, I'm sure rent control is part of it, but there's a lot of restrictions, zoning restrictions, building codes, all these kinds of things that especially apartment builders are dealing with in these big blue cities. And that is likely a big reason why they they requested that uh the the second change is it instead of previously it would allow anybody in texas to bring suit on this it restricted it to uh someone injured quote actually or threatened to be injured uh by a specific action from a locality or an association representing one of those people.

So it shrunk the pool of people that could sue. And in Burroughs' estimation, it still accomplishes the same goal because affected parties may still challenge these laws under the preemption proposal. And the third one was previously you could bring suit in any county, and now it has to be either in the county of the regulation you're challenging or an adjacent one. And the thinking there is that a lot of

these counties, they're very blue, and their judiciaries are very blue as well. And so from the Republicans and the legislature's perspective challenges would be dismissed a lot more because of of these uh of the makeup of the the judiciary in these places so um that was the change those were the changes uh overall burroughs intention is to create a proactive response to local government ordinances such as the one being

considered in Dallas that would ban gas-powered lawn equipment, rather than being reactive, responding to individual policies after the fact, as he put it, playing whack-a-mole. No. Again, quite a quote. What was the reception like generally? So supporters, especially business owners, praised the bill for being a better solution to the issue of what they see as oppressive regulations set by local governments that by and large make doing business more difficult. And that goes for, you know, there were apartment associations that came. There was barbecue joints that came in and testified in decried the bill as impairing cities' home rule status and the ability to govern their own jurisdictions as they see fit.

This is an interesting debate. I talk about it in the piece. I won't go into it here, but there's a lot of history to this theme that we see. More than anything else, this comes down to a fight between the red state legislature pushing back on blue cities, who've increasingly adopted employment, environment, and other regulations that exceed what state law lays out. And then at the end of the hearing the committee sub was withdrawn and the bill left pending at it doesn't always happen but it's not an unusual occurrence can be standard procedure uh it doesn't really damage the chances of the bill advancing out

of committee into the floor should the bill make it to the house floor i expect a huge effort by opposing members specifically democrats to amend or kill it um would this be another issue where potentially rural republicans in certain areas of the state team up with democrats i think it depends on the final form of the bill listening to the hearing there were multiple rural republic on the State Affairs Committee that expressed concerns about the original form of the bill and then sided kind of with boroughs after the committee sub was introduced. For example, one of those was Representative Smithy in Amarillo, I believe. He was a bit concerned with the broad nature of it in the first place. And then after the Taylor, the changes were made, he was more amenable to it.

And it sounded like he was supportive of the bill. So it's still possible. Democrats killed two versions of an employment preemption bill last session, one in regular session, one in special by chubbing, which I'm sure we'll get to talk about during the legislature once things actually get started to vote on on the floor. But this is something that Democrats, especially the Democrats on the committee, were vehemently opposed to. And I think they're going to fight tooth and nail to prevent it from passing. Brad, thanks for your coverage. Matt, coming back to you, it was a busy week all around and in the Texas Senate, specifically for election law related issues. What were the five bills that you reported on this week? Senator Brian Hughes, once again,

who chairs the Senate State Affairs Committee, was the author of two of the five election bills up for consideration on Monday, Senate Bills 747 and Senate Bill 921. 921 drew the most attention as it clarifies under state law that ranked choice voting is illegal in Texas, particularly in Texas cities, many of which are presently using that election method. Don't ask me to explain how it works. And that was one of the things that Hughes pointed out is that it is a bit of a complicated process during47, on the other hand, cleared up some issues in Texas election law where if a primary runoff candidate withdraws, then any third place candidate who ran in the primary would qualify to be placed on the runoff ballot to give voters a choice in that election. Whereas right now they've had some instances where one of the two runoff candidates withdraws and the other person has just declared the victor default and the voters don't get a second round of voting on that issue.

So those are excuses to bills. The other legislation is carried by Senator Paul Betancourt, who also had two bills, including Senate Bill 221, which establishes guidelines for home rule cities that hold referendum elections to ensure election language clearly communicates to the voters what the measure does. His other bill, Senate Bill 825, clarifies that election code requirements for filing a recount petition after an election, pointing to a recent election issue in Harris County. The bill extends the time to file a petition by one day and clarifies that the deadline cannot occur on a weekend or a holiday. Lastly, Senator Drew Springer had legislation, Senate Bill 1052, that extends the amount

of time the election judge may be paid for work performed before the polls open. Current law provides that they may only be paid for one hour of work preparing to open the polls. Springer contends that there are numerous examples where judges have had to work for multiple hours prior to the polls opening to prepare the election site. His bill would remedy this by extending the amount of time of eligible paid time from one hour to two hours before the polls open. All of the bills are presently pending before the committee. Would it be fair to say that SB 747 took flight this week? Oh, zing!

Thank you. I simply cannot believe. How painful was that for you? Did you see it on my face? Oh, yeah. I had it in the back of my mind too so I'm I'm I'm just gonna live through you on that see that was weird because it sounded like Mackenzie's voice but I am 90 confident that that was Daniel so my brain is confused oh that really hurt my soul oh brother, brother. Okay. Well, you boys, all of you, I'm looking over at Daniel in his office. Let's see if he can hear.

No, I don't think he notices at all. We can also barely see him because it's a one-way mirror. I know. That's kind of creepy too. Yeah. Let's all just look at him until he, somebody throws something out the window. Okay. He has no idea we're staring.

No idea. He's going to edit this and be like, what the heck is happening? Okay. Cameron, we're moving on to you. Matt, thanks so much for your coverage. Representative Nate Schatzlein filed a bill to attempt to curtail minors from viewing sexual material online. Tell us what this specific bill does.

So this bill will require social media platforms and websites to perform an age verification process to access the site if the site has more than one-third of its content labeled as sexual material harmful to minors. The age verification process would be performed either by the site itself or through a third-party system. And the bill requires that no information used in the ID process be retained. If a website is found to be publishing such material without access measures or retaining information of the user during the verification process, they would be liable to the parent of the minor for damages resulting from access to the material. So the age verification process is obviously

very interesting, but is there any precedence for this and how do they plan to accomplish this? So Texas is not the only state to attempt to require age verification online. Louisiana passed something similar last year. Louisiana requires age verification online. Louisiana passed something similar last year. Louisiana requires age verification using government-issued identification or a public or private transaction data. If an individual in Louisiana attempts to access a website that is at least one-third sexual material, they are directed to confirm their identity through an app called LA Wallet, which was developed by the state government to digitize the driver's license. And Texas has a similar program that they launched last year called Texas by Texas that creates a single

digital identity or an SDI for access to services and agencies. So these SDIs could be used for online ID for access to these types of websites, but it's primarily used for renewing driver's licenses. But this is only one part of a larger framework for this Texas by Texas platform. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation was used as the pilot program for instituting these types of services. And we've actually seen other countries have policies like this. The UK had an online safety bill that prevents children from accessing potentially harmful material online through an ID verification by a third-party vendor. And then Australia's online safety system requires age verification by giving Google access to government IDs for viewing certain material. So there is precedence

for a bill like this. And the ID process is very interesting. Online privacy is something that I'm personally interested in. So this is something I'll be following. Thank you, Cameron. Brad, the two chambers for their preferred versions of appraisal reform. A reduction in the appraisal cap and extension to commercial property in the House and a homestead exemption increase paired with a business tax credit and a business personal property tax exemption increase in the Senate. That's a lot in the back mic tomorrow, today, for release of this podcast. There's a breakdown of the various items within the property tax plans that you can look at. But I think it's first important to note that both chambers largely agree on the feature of the property tax issue this session, which is rate compression, using state dollars to buy down, in this case, school district maintenance and operations rate. There's not a lot of daylight between the two versions on that. Now, on this appraisal reform, there is a Grand Canyon-sized amount of daylight between these uh between the two plans and so they are really taking the

fight to one another on this um if you if you check out the piece you can see the different arguments from the chambers basically it comes down to this the house believes that lowering the appraisal cap to five percent currently it's ten percent only for homesteads, and extending it to businesses, all commercial property, would provide enough of a downward pressure applied to tax bills, as in the cap does not buy down anything or doesn't increase exemptions, none of that, that doesn't happen immediately. It's over time. So the Senate sees that and they prefer homestead exemption increases. They argue because it will provide more immediate effect on property tax bills. The Senate, because they are trying to raise the homestead exemption to deal with the business side of things, they have proposed an increase in an exemption. Now they've proposed a $25,000 BPP exemption. Abbott

has called for $100,000. The difference is that they also are proposing this tax credit, inventory tax credit. And so this is something I think will be very hard for the two chambers to agree on. I'm not sure where they're going to come down. And I know it's knock on wood, already talking about special sessions, but this is something that could cause one because the two chambers are so far apart on this issue. So something to watch, even though in the grand scheme of the property tax issue, it is a minor component, but clearly it's very politically important for both chambers. Certainly, Bradley. Thank you. Cameron, back to you. Another controversial bill that you have been following caught a lot of attention online. Tell us what it does.

So this bill is aimed at disincentivizing children's presence at drag performances by allowing a minor in attendance to levy civil action against the drag performer. A minor who attends a drag performance will have the ability to bring a civil action against one who knowingly promotes, conducts, or participates in the performance. And if the claim prevails in the court, then they can be awarded up to $5,000. This gained a lot of attention online, like you mentioned, because there was a transgender rights activist who posted the details of this legislation and called it a bounty hunter drag ban. And those accusations refer to the damages rewards, claiming it would cause individuals to seek out these types of events to file lawsuits. There you go.

This isn't the first time this bill has been labeled or a certain bill like this has been labeled as a bounty hunter law. Tell us about the abortion laws specifically in this case. Yeah. So Senate Bill 8, the Texas Heartbeat Act, which opponents claimed was an abortion bounty law because as a statute that allows individuals to file a lawsuit against anyone who aids or abets an abortion and is awarded $10,000 in damages. But as we know, this was challenged in court and was dismissed by San Antonio court last December. And the judge based that ruling on the language stating only a person directly impacted by the abortion services in question. Not just anyone has standing to sue under SB 8. And so because Toth, his bill language on accountability and reward share similar language, the ruling gives insight into how

these future cases involving this bill might be handled. There you go. Cameron, thanks for your coverage. Matthew, coming back to you, boomerang, and President Joe Biden signed an executive order on gun control this week. What does it do? Well, in the order, President Biden instructed federal agencies to further implement the Safer Communities Act, a legislation passed last year that carried bipartisan support, including from Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn.

Cornyn received pushback from Texas Republicans over his vote on the legislation, if you'll recall, in the news stories last year. In the details, Biden is seeking to expand federal background checks on firearms purchases, place licensed gun dealers under heightened scrutiny, and in particular, look for ways to expand red flag type laws, or what are known as extreme risk protective orders that allow law enforcement to confiscate firearms before a crime is committed. The order doesn't only deal with gun control measures, but it also instructs federal agencies to find ways to promote safe firearms handling education for the general public. And lastly, the order also instructs federal agencies to find ways to provide greater access to mental health care, in particular, victims of firearms-related crimes. There you go, Matthew. Thank you. Hayden, last but not least, the Texas Department of Public Safety issued a strong warning against traveling to Mexico. What did DPS have to say?

For once, I would like you to put one of my stories at the end and when we get there, say, and last and definitely least. I just think that would be funny. Anyway, the Texas Department of Public Safety warned people not to go to Mexico for spring break on account of cartel violence. Lieutenant Colonel, excuse me, Colonel Stephen McCraw, director of DPS said, quote, drug cartel violence and other criminal activity represent a significant safety threat to anyone who crosses into Mexico right now. We have a trip to Mexico. Two others were abducted with them, but thankfully they were not killed and they have been returned to the States for medical care and treatment. There you go. Thank you. Moving on to

our tweetery section. Matt, why don't we go ahead and start with you? I really like this one. Okay. It makes me excited, even though I'm not going to be present for this event. Okay. Me neither, unfortunately. Sad days. days yeah but my parents will be there we love that so i am from a little town in far southwest texas up in the mountains yes texas has mountains uh called fort davis and i noticed that it is in the news that um there is snow in the forecast this weekend for all three days. Actually, pretty decent snow predictions. So while the rest of Texas is spring-breaking and all that sort of stuff in our far southwest corner,

we're still getting a little bit of winter wonderland. So my parents are visiting our place this weekend so it uh they should be there for this uh late spot of winter that the state will be encountering so i thought that was a little bit of a fun fact that popped up on twitter certainly is i would like to note that it has been 50 to 60 all week and i wore a sweater today and it is supposed to be 80 degrees today how is it supposed to be 80 today it's cloudy outside it says that it's supposed i think it's muggy heat like there will be supposedly thunderstorms and it should be 81 degrees by like 4 or 5 p.m right when we're getting off of work

right when i'm walking to my car not that i've thought about this i will be staying inside until it's dark. Oh, my Atlanta. Cameron, what about you? So Elon Musk is going to be starting up his own town here in Texas. He's calling it Project Amazing and has named the town Snailbrook because- Snailbrook? I believe so. Like a little slug, but with a shell, and then brook like a babbling?

Well, because there's a little motto with his boring company that they want to build machines that move faster than a snail. Oh. And so he plans on building 110 homes for his employees. If they want to live in the company town, it'll be $800 a month. And if you get fired, you have 30 days to leave the provinces. So even though he did send a lot of his production for one of his companies. I think it was Tesla back to California.

But still, he does have a lot of employees here in Texas. So he's making his own town here. Oh, wow. This is 110 homes in Bastrop County. Yeah. Huh. I don't like it. No?

I know. Brad, what's your problem with it? Well, so I live on the other side of the airport, pretty close to Bastrop. So we go there frequently just to hang out, leave a nice downtown area by the river. And he's just speeding up population growth there. So soon it'll be impossible to live there, impossible to afford, unless you're, you know, working at Tesla and paying $800 a month to live on his compound. But yeah,

compound. Why couldn't he have chosen, you know, I don't know anywhere else. That's just my, so it's a personal gripe. Yes. It's personal gripe.

Elon, if you're listening, Brad, we are supposedly listening. Elon, if you're listening, we are aiming to remove ourselves from the story and be objective. So this take is unwelcome.

Sorry, this one I cannot abide. Although I will agree with you that nothing is more sad than being in a nice little downtown area. And it seems like it used to be a tight-knit town. And it has just been engulfed by concrete and developments. I'm more of thinking about the prospect of buying a house in a few years' time and seeing the prices in Austin. And if Elon does that to Bastrop, I'm going to be angry. I am going to continue to defend good old Elon. I'm a big believer in innovation and entrepreneurship and expansion. Are you hoping he listens to this podcast?

Are you hoping he listens to this podcast and offers you one of his 110 homes? Is that the angle here? No, but I just love all things space. But I also love all things free economics and good good growth and what makes texas awesome everybody wants to come here because we're awesome we have opportunity we're expanding everything's great and you know there's no u-hauls in california because they're all over here and things like that so yeah well one of the reasons that people are leaving california and droves is that costs so much to live there. So, as with everything,

Matthew, trade-offs. And Texas is awesome. Texas is awesome. I will agree with that. People aren't coming here because Texas is awesome. They're coming here for economic reasons. Because we're awesome? They're not coming here with the Texas flag

in the back of their pickup truck like, Yay, we're Texans now! Cameron, do you have a Texas flag in the back of their pickup truck like, yay, we're Texans now. Some are, though. I don't know. Cameron, do you have a Texas flag on the back of your car yet? We'll work on it. We'll work on it. Hayden, what about you?

You're already chuckling. I thought it was funny. Well, this is a thread by a guy named Andy. Again, I have no idea who this person is, but it's Andy. Yeah. Hi, Andy. Um, I guess there's his last name is in his Twitter handle, but whatever this graphic is, he, all of these are just different graphics of silly little things. But he said my go to workout and it's just this chart and it says 30 minutes of cardio and then a little quote that says I need food and then five years of rest.

Oh, my gosh. And I relate to this because I think in 2017 I ran on the treadmill for a little bit and I'm still recovering. So I related to this. Your hamstring is still in repair. I'm still in rest time. I don't understand why people run on treadmills. It is so sad. I'm with you.

It's a sad. I do run on treadmills. I ran on the treadmill occasionally, but not as often as I should. I love the treadmill. Really? I would so much rather be outside. I'd rather be outside, but if you want to do a structured workout,

there's nothing better. You're totally right. Than the treadmill. It's so much more controlled. And especially if you have like a certain amount of, yeah, I understand that argument for sure. But for me, it has to be paired with something else. I can't just go run on the treadmill and call that.

Like I have to do treadmill and then maybe something else. Otherwise I would go a little sterk. Well well that's why you got to lock in with a good podcast or you got some pump up music going then you just get in the zone it's like that's true how does that go thank you there are some other funny ones on here too he has one that says best email signature and there are three options and two of them are X'd and one is checked. The three options were best, sincerely, and the one he picked was see you in hell.

Have you ever gotten runner's high? It's a real thing. It's the dopamine release. So I've told and I've never gotten it. You never have? No, not even when I ran a lot in high school. When I played soccer, yeah. No, never got that. I get even when I ran a lot in high school. Really? When I played soccer, yeah. Oh. No, never got that.

I get it. I get it. I kept chasing it, though. I get it quite often when I'm riding my bike. Not so much running, but when I'm riding my bike. And just because you're out there for so long and you can kind of just let your mind go. So, I don't know. I feel it, definitely.

There you go. Bradad what about you this is also we'll pivot into our uh fun topic for this podcast so the house and senate both hosted a pretty famous actor honored him on the floor of each of the respective uh chambers and you're in te Texas, we're talking about. You're in Austin. And they typically do this a lot at the beginning of session when they have a lot of free time when they're not hearing bills and whatnot.

So they hosted Dennis Quaid, who by reports that I've heard is kind of a strange person personally, but that's just that I've heard, is kind of a strange person personally. But that's just rumors I've heard. But, by golly, does he have some wonderful movies. Legend. Yeah. Yeah.

Legend. Oh, you said pretty well known. The guy's a legend. Yeah, this is like, he's pretty darn, at one point he was like A-list, A-list. Yeah. My favorite was the rookie about uh it's actually based on a real story a guy who uh at like age 40 or something all of a sudden jumped to the major leagues and pitched because he had a an insane arm but uh that was my favorite

but he's got quite a few yeah absolutely um i'd say the rookie would be like that's our fun topic let's talk about dennis quaid movies being that he had just visited the texas capital this week uh the rookie is up there for me too i love that movie but parent trap based oh my small little west texas town by the way as i recall maybe look it up yeah it's it starts in texas yeah yeah i forget it's been so long since I've seen it. I don't remember the details, but the first scene is guys playing baseball on ye olden days with pump jacks. Yeah.

In the distance. That's pretty cool. Yeah. I'm trying to remember. I think it was Ira Ann, but I can't remember for sure. One of those little West Texas oil-filled towns. Oh, that's so cool. Parent Trap is the other one that is my favorite.

It's such a classic. Texas oil-filled towns. Oh, that's so cool. Parent Trap is the other one that is my favorite. It's such a classic. Did you ever eat Oreos with peanut butter? 100% yes. Well, at my grandparents' house, it was the movie we'd watch every time we visited them. They had it on VHS. We'd go watch it. My favorite. I watched it on the Cousins.

I love, I just love the original Parent Trap. Well, not the original. This is not the original. Technically watch it on the Cousins. I love, I just love the original parent. Well, not the original. This is not the original. Technically, it's the second one. The Lindsay Lohan. The Lindsay Lohan, Dennis Quaid. Gosh, what was the mom's? She's so lovely.

I can't remember that actress's name. Yeah, regardless. That was, oh, it's so good. I just want to know when the legislature's going to honor the even more famous Quaid brother, Randy Quaid. I don't know what you're talking about. What? You don't know who Randy Quaid is?

No. Cousin Eddie? No. That's his brother. That is his brother. Christmas vacation. Christmas vacation. Oh, okay.

Save the neck for me, Clark. Oh, my gosh. You know? That's hilarious. He's also like, oh like oh god he's got so so many great movies like uh you ever see kingpin or uh like independence day and he's the crazy pilot yep uh and everything so many funny movies uh and he is a bit of a character too if you've ever ever seen, if you ever seen his Twitter, it's, it's,

it's a trap. Well, some other famous movies that, uh, Dennis Quaid was in include the day after tomorrow, which is an interesting movie. I'm also looking at his discography. Is that how you say it?

Discography. He has been in so many movies even recently that I had no idea about. Like the guy just pumps out movies. Yeah. Looking for a payday coming out soon but uh he was in he was sam houston in the alamo that's relevant wow back in 2004 oh did he yeah that's pretty crazy so yeah that was cool yeah pretty interesting um cameron do you have any favorite dennis quaid movies oh it has to be the rookie so good i've seen that movie so many times yeah it you know the moments where he parks his car next to the speed limit sign throws the ball and it says 76 miles an hour or something and then he walks by it all disappointed and then it flashes yeah it's like oh wow what was the hardest you threw

oh i did i never touched 90 okay unfortunately you're lefty or no i was right-handed okay but no i was a i was a more control guy and threw a lot of two-seamers, sliders. You were a pitcher, not a thrower. Right. I wish I could throw hard. Maybe I wouldn't have stopped playing in college. There you go. I was talking with a friend earlier this week, and they were saying,

yeah, we're halfway through the legislative session. And I was like, yeah, we almost almost are and then hayden said in our docket here that we're literally like monday is literally our halfway point which is crazy to think about yeah i just did some googling on the movie the rookie it was based on big lake texas big lake texas now we know thank you for your fact checking. Anyways, but yeah, thanks to Hayden, we know Monday is a halfway point in session. That's pretty crazy. And now things are really starting to happen. Yeah.

So folks, definitely keep an eye out. We'll be following everything as closely as possible. Make sure to go to thetexan.news. I know we had talked about a lot of stories today and teased more information on our site, but really that's where you can get all the details from these stories. So make sure to go to the text about news and subscribe. Folks, thanks so much for listening and we'll catch you on next week's podcast.

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 the Texan dots. 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 an email to editor at thetexan.news. We are funded entirely by readers and listeners like you. So thank you again for your support. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.