The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - May 30, 2025

Episode Date: May 30, 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/Learn more about the Data Center Coalition at: https://www.centerofyourdigitalworld.org/texasThe 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.Paxton Up 9 Points on Cornyn in 2026 Primary Matchup, Hunt at 15 Percent in Three-Way RaceTexas House Approves Floor Substitute to Bill Abolishing Texas Lottery CommissionTexas House Approves 'New Hollywood' $300 Million Film Tax Incentive Program$2.5 Billion Water Infrastructure Deal, Additional 20-Year Annual $1 Billion Struck in Texas LegislatureTexas Medical Cannabis 'Compassionate Use Program' Expansion Bill Passes SenateSchool Prayer Times and Classroom Ten Commandments Legislation Pass Texas Legislature, Head to Abbott'Making Texas Healthy Again' Nutritional Education, Labeling Bill Advances in HouseBan on Child Sexual Abuse NDAs Passes Texas Legislature, Heads to Governor's DeskCement kilnTexas House Passes Texas Sheriffs-ICE Immigration Enforcement Contract BillFirst ‘Project Homecoming’ Flight Voluntarily Deports 64 Illegal Aliens from HoustonBill Adding NRA to Texas Major Events Program Delayed in House After Democratic Oppositionand more!

Howdy folks, Mackenzie here with Mary-Lise Cameron-Brad on another edition of the Weekly Roundup. We are T minus five, nope, four days away from the end of the legislative session. I think three by the time this goes out. That's kind of wild. It's flown by. The House ended business early last night. Like, I don't know, nine, the Senate was going a little bit later. There's a lot going on in the Senate last night.

Very interesting. Um, but are you guys ready? I put out a poll on Slack this week that was essentially asking how ready you are to be done with the legislative session on the scale of one to five. Everyone chose four, which was essentially, I'm very ready for it to be done, but I will miss it when it's over. Yeah. I'm ready for the nightmares to stop where I wake up in a cold sweat, ding,

ding, ding, to the house with the bell. That'll haunt us for months to come. Do you guys get, also my husband, cause he hears me listening to it all the time. get. Also my husband, because he hears me listening to it all the time at our house, like I constantly have the ledge on, and I like he'll start impersonating the bell, and I go, babe do you know what that bell means? He goes, yeah isn't that every time a point of order is called? I was like, first of all I'm proud of you for knowing what a point of order was, and second of all, no that's the vote. He's like, okay. But we're almost done. Mary Lee's the vote. And he's like, okay, okay. Um, but we're almost done.

Mary Lee's first session. Yeah. Do you feel like your head is wrapped around a lot of the procedure now? Well, you know, I'm still learning as demonstrated in the conversation we had before this podcast. Um, but yeah, I definitely have much better grasp on how the whole process works and I feel like I know the lawmakers a lot better now, some of them more personally, so. Which is really fun. really fun yeah super fun and to be fair the

conversation with podcast that's a very unwieldy technical topic so that would be confusing for anybody thank you yeah just for the record Bradley you ready this is your third session yeah no fourth fourth well we were only here for half I count it it was the last part, yeah. That's the tough part. Cam, is your second? It's my second. You said you feel more exhausted this time than last time.

Yeah. Well, I was explaining to you when I first started, it was my first session. And it felt like everything was happening at me, where I was just reacting. And so it wasn't as exhausting because I didn't really know all the, all the procedures, I was still learning all the members, so it was just really reactive. And at the end I was like, Oh, wow.

Okay. It's over. But now you almost feel like an active participant in the process because you understand the players, you understand the process, and you can kind of foresee what's going to happen. And so there's a lot of anticipation that occurs when you're following bills on the floor. And that's the exhausting part is because you're almost preparing before the thing happens. Yeah. And then when it does happen, you're like, Oh my gosh, they did it. And then when it doesn happen you're like oh my gosh they did it and then when it doesn't happen you're like oh my gosh it didn't happen.

So it's it's been it's been a lot of fun actually knowing what's happening. So I'm not I am ready for it to be over but I'm gonna miss it. Yeah. I remember the first assignment I had before I got, was it before I officially got hired or right after I did? We were making you work before we hired you? Yeah we had to pre-write articles and stuff. Well you were hired? It was slave labor? No. I think I had to kind of audition with an article. Oh, yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, but The that was on the thing that I wrote was on property taxes

whoo which Was wow especially knowing how little I knew then was probably awful But that was the Super Bowl session with property taxes and school finance as the duo. Which has been referenced a lot this session. Yeah, and well here we are again trying to pass property tax relief and there is a press conference happening this afternoon in

the Senate on the property tax stuff and you know juries out if we'll have any you know hyperbole said about how significant this is you know last session we had the greatest tax cut in the history of the universe in 19 we had the Super Bowl session and now we'll have this and you know especially for certain people it'll be very impactful. So I'll end my property tax talk there but time is a flat circle. It's hard for legislators to pass any sort of big bill and not hail it as the best thing to have ever happened in the history of the world. I

think I did a mini rant on last week's podcast or the one before that. And I just would love us to return to reality of, you know, just nothing is either the greatest thing ever or the worst thing ever. Everything's somewhere in between. I think that's asking too much Bradley. I know it is, but you know, a boy can dream. A boy can dream. It's something.

Wow, I'm gonna put that in my newsletter. A boy can dream. Well, Bradley, it's amazing how quickly we're pivoting to campaign season in the midst of finalizing all this legislative stuff. There is a very interesting 2026 US Senate poll that came out this week. Why don't you give us a rundown?

Yeah, I mean, we've already seen, campaign season started early this year and we're gonna really see it ramp up once the legislature's done because then people can actually raise money. So I'm sure we'll see a good number of announcements. At least current state level legislators. Yes, yes.

But there was an interesting poll that came out this week from the Barbara Jordan Public Policy and Research and Survey Center at Texas Southern University. Mark P. Jones was, is the pollster associated with it. They engaged a host of things, including the US Senate race next year, Head to head of the two candidates currently in the US Senate race, Jones has has Paxton up 43% to Cornyn's 34%, which based on the other polling we've seen put out there, all of it is internal polling, which can either be really good or really bad based on... In quality.

In quality, like either it's a push-pull and they're trying to assert something that is... they're trying to make fetch happen, as it were, or it's actually probably the best quality poll you're going to see. This public polling is usually somewhere in between, I would say. Some are better than others, But this one has Paxton up nine in a head-to-head matchup with Cornyn in the primary. And again, caveat with polls is this is a snapshot in time, things change, yada yada yada. We're a long way from the election. But it is an interesting gauge in the moment. Now with Wesley Hunt as a third candidate who we've talked about has been mulling this, he's been getting his name out there, he's running ads

statewide. Not saying he's running for Senate, but just look at me, I'm great, Wesley Hunt, you know, that kind of thing. Ra-Ra Trump. So he's trying to get his, he's trying to bump his name ID, but this has him at 15%, which honestly for a candidate who isn't in the race is pretty good. It still has Cornyn or Paxton it up in first place at 34% to Cornyn's 27 with hunt at 15. But yeah, I'd say that results, if it is accurate of the current electorate, is bad for Paxton, bad for Cornyn, and good for Hunt. But we shall see.

Other aspects of this, they didn't gauge head to head on any prospective Democratic candidates, but they did gauge the net favorables, which is just favorable rating minus unfavorable rating and you get what you get. Colin Allred had the best of actually Colin Allred and Joaquin Castro had the best with a plus seven net fave on fave now all red has 17 percent unknown which we saw was something that plagued him last year during the race against Cruz he had good favorables but then he had really high unknowns and people just didn't know who the heck he was and he did not have the kind of exposure, the ubiquitous exposure that O'Rourke did in 18. Right?

Castro, though, has a 40% unknown. He's not run for a statewide race, so that makes sense. Beto O'Rourke has a negative 6 net fave on fave, which tells you a lot, I think. And his unknown was 8%. So everyone knows who Beto is. Yeah. And I'd love to compare that number to the 2018 fave on fave. Because I guarantee you it's like double digit.

And he has a net negative. So people know how they feel about him and more people don't like him than like him based on this poll. On the Republican side, Ken Paxton's at an even net fave on fave, John Cornyn's at minus eight, and Wesley Hunt is at plus nine. However, his unknown percentage is over 50%. Wow. So, a lot of ground to be gained or lost there for him. Quickly on the other two state-wides that they gauged

on this, the attorney general candidates or prospective candidates are all in the same range. Mays Middleton, Brian Hughes, and Joan Huffman were the ones they polled. They're all like 17 to 18% in the positive territory on the net gauge there. And how each have a lot of unknown. And then you have Comptroller, Chrissy Craddick is at plus 28. How fine is that plus 22 in the net fave and fave and so

All of in these each of these there's a lot of unknowns or no opinions And so we'll see how that changes as things develop One name there was a poll that went out yesterday that I saw that had State Senator Kelly Hancock's name floated as a third Comptroller candidate. A lot of buzz about him either running or being appointed by Abbott and then running for Comptroller. But as far as I've heard, there's no actual movement on that yet. But time's ticking and I'm sure that'll come to a head after session.

Lots of big open races that will result in some very interesting primary challenges and interesting general challenges too. There's a lot of conversation about the general election specifically with the US NRAs so we'll see what that looks like. And the poll I've linked to in the piece has issue polling as well so if you're interested in that check it out. Especially after everything else passed the session it's very interesting. School choice being one of them. Bradley thank you. Cameron to you, a floor substitute to the Lottery Commission abolition bill was approved by the House on Sunday. Of all days, working over the

weekend, give us the details. The Lord's Day? What was the other thing we had on the floor that day? Oh. So there was a lottery. Well, Hollywood was on the floor too. Hold on. Yeah, it was Cameron said. Oh, it was Sunday. It was Sunday. On Sunday. Yeah. This was a quote from Cameron. Movies and gambling. It's going to be a fun Sunday. Yeah. Yeah. And then I posted a AI generated photo of myself buying a lottery ticket. Yeah. Things you can do with AI. Cameron lights up our group chat with the best photos. But getting back to this here, this is all about Senate Bill 3070, authored by Senator Bob Hall. For anyone who has been listening to this podcast, we've talked a lot about the Lottery

Commission, all about the issues and controversies associated with winners using courier services and issues with these lottery terminals at these retail locations. And so there's been a variety of different pieces of legislation seeking to address some of these issues. This is sort of the big one here as it would essentially abolish the Texas Slaughter Commission, move its operations to another Texas agency, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, and also create a limited scope sunset review, place limits on the number of tickets that can be purchased, eliminate the ability to buy tickets on the Internet, so a whole lot of things in this. Well on Sunday Rep Charlie Yaron, he proposed a floor substitute that made some substantial changes, most

notably changing the sunset date of the Texas Lottery Commission to 2029 when it was originally 2027. He said the reason for doing this was to give additional time to these agencies to sort of adjust to these changes. One of the other big changes that Garron was seeking to make was remove an amendment that was added by the Senate that would have given the governor, the lieutenant governor, and the Speaker of the House and the Attorney General entitled them to essentially be inspectors of the Texas lottery. He was seeking to remove those sort of provisions. Well, the most substantial debate that occurred on the floor was an

amendment that was proposed by Representative Brent Money, who was trying to essentially end the lottery altogether by placing the sunset date as September 1st, 2025. So there's a lot of back and forth, lots of interesting conversations. There was some issues with some, the voting up and down on some of these amendments and it was sort of an interesting back and forth that was going on. It was sort of an interesting back and forth that was going on. But it did end up, so Money's amendment did not end up passing. What did end up passing was that floor substitute to the original bill. So as of now, Garen's floor substitute, if people really want all the details on what's included in that they can go read the story but that's the current status of Senate bill 3070 is it's been passed with the floor substitute and now the

Senate needs to approve those amendments before uh, before it can, um, head the governor Greg Abbott's task. So a wild journey for the lottery commission, this legislative session. Yeah. And it's not over, uh, either cause there's a number of investigations that are currently ongoing and we're just waiting on the results of those. So lots of more information that's still going to come out. The interim will be full of lottery news just as the session has been. Yeah, not again. There's issues that come up every session that you're not anticipating.

And you kind of just sort of have to react and be ready. And this is one of those issues that's taken up a lot of our, at least my time, trying to dig into all the details. Because again, like I've mentioned, this has been a issue we've covered a lot here at the Texan and it goes back years once you start to dig into it. So it is really fascinating if you're interested in this topic. Absolutely.

And go check out Cameron's reporting at thetexan.news. Thank you. Thank you, Cameron. Very nice coming to you. Legislation, very substantially increasing tax incentive funding for filmmakers. We've heard a lot about this this session, two things that you just don't expect to necessarily be on the agenda. This is one of them. Pass the Texas House. Tell us about it. Yes. So this was a priority of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick's.

And since the beginning of session, has been kind of a definitely a niche but hot topic for folks, people who are excited about it and about the potential it might bring to Texas for filmmakers and actors and then also people concerned that this is a misuse of taxpayer funds and pretty strong opinions on either side as it always is with this sort of legislation. So it's called the Texas Moving Image Industry Program which is already established and it already receives $200 per biennium and so this legislation is essentially

seeking to increase it substantially in order to offer more tax incentives to filmmakers in Texas and some folks are calling it the new Hollywood so they're hoping to bring Hollywood to Texas or at least allow Texas to form its own Hollywood. So representative Todd Hunter laid it out on the House floor on Sunday as we mentioned Sunday was full of those fun topics and this is Senate bill 22 by Senator Joan Huffman and Representative Hunter laid it out. There wasn't a whole lot of debate before it passed, but one conversation that happened

as Hunter was laying it out, he mentioned that they're looking at referring to the Senate. He said they're looking at adding 300 million per biennium of tax dollars to this program. And then Representative Richard Hayes came up and he said, well, hey, this bill adds, he said it looks like it's 500. What's the discrepancy here for the numbers? And then Representative Hunter said, well, I've heard that the conference committee is looking at those numbers. And then the next day he introduced an amendment that would allocate $300 million per biennium.

So that would be a $100 million increase per biennium for this program. But the Senate version is $500 million, which is a $300 million per biennium. So they'll have to resolve that in conference. $300 million increase. Yes, increase, yes. So that was the only thing that where there was a back and forth there, there was also, this wasn't a debate, but Representative David Lowe came up and gave a speech against it and it was a pretty passionate speech. He

said, look, referring to Hollywood folks, he said these people have been criticizing our values. He said they criticized us for voting for President Trump and for standing up for the unborn. And he was citing the concerns that have been expressed by some folks that drawing the film industry to Texas could bring along some Hollywood values that people don't want in Texas. So that was David Lowe's argument. And he said that the general concern, he said about taxpayer funds being misused. This is a lot of money,

and that we shouldn't be using taxpayer funds. It ended up receiving 26 votes against it. Actually 27, because Representative Hull later said that she meant to vote against it. So 26 voted against it All of whom were Republicans. So Hunter said he responded to those concerns about Hollywood. He said this isn't Hollywood coming to Texas. This is Texas taking over Hollywood We're doing our own thing. So we'll see what committee decides but that was his pitch to them. It was interesting watching this play out because Patrick summoned a group of the conservatives

in the House over to give them one last pitch. Based on what I was told, the argument was, well, the money's already in the budget for it, passing this bill would just set guidelines and guardrails for how it's spent and you know what the job requirements are that kind of thing right one member who came back to the floor after it was talking to me said that they were actually convinced by the argument now that didn't last long because they eventually voted against the bill. I think if I remember seeing the vote board But yeah, that was Patrick was whipping votes significantly on it and

This is a top priority. So it makes sense. Yeah. Well Hunter actually mentioned that when he laid it out He said I believe it was this is not the money bill So he was referring that same pitch that Patrick made so this isn't the money bill but we're just setting up a guardrails for it so there was also I forgot to mention a little bit of discussion about the residency requirement which has been an argument against this specific bill because the residency requirement, folks are arguing if it's lowered the amount of Texans that you hire to work on these film crews, they're saying it's not going to impact Texas positively, it's going to instead be

helping folks that are out of state. So it used to be 70% and then during the 88th legislative session it was lower to 55% and then to 35%. So folks have said that Taylor Sheridan has been a big advocate for lowering the residency requirements. He said there's not enough actors in Texas, there's not enough people to put on our crews and Hunter said that he would be interested at looking at a an incentive for folks who hire 70% or more Texans. I think it was a 2.5% uplift for folks who not fire hire mostly Texans. So that way it impacts Texans more directly. Taylor Sheridan of course the guy who created Yellowstone

among all of its spinoffs. Can I just ask a quick aside to Brad is, you know, you've been here for a number of sessions now. Dan Patrick is always involved behind the scenes on legislation. Is this session though, different in how public he has been advocating how public he has been advocating for his priority issues. You know this movie Bill, SB3, there... Is this sort of typical Patrick? I think it's he's had a bit of a twist in the way he does it. I don't think it's new the level of publicity he's done, but these like on the ground reporting videos, he's not done that before. And that seemed to have been quite effective. He has been posting not just videos at a THC store

or at a lottery, whatever it is, whatever the retailer yeah he's also posting videos face to camera in his office responding to you know things a lot so I think he's he's making a deliberate shift on that overall you know I think it's no secret if you look at his list of priorities and it's less red meat conservative than it has been in the past. You know my personal thought is that first of all he's closer to the end of his career as lieutenant governor than the beginning. He's as of now running for reelection and I have no reason to believe he won't run for reelection but he's trying to get these legacy wins for him,

things that he can point to later on and say, I did that. That's a big accomplishment in my career. The movie incentive and the indiparate strike me as really good testaments to that. And that's obviously not the only stuff he's done, but he hasn't focused on things like that before. This is stuff that he can really hang his hat on when he's done. And you know, he can, he has tangible things he can point to afterwards, different, whenever that's up and running. Like a whole dementia research program. He can say, I did that. You know, every movie that's made in Texas he can point to and say we helped make that happen. Right. And I did

personally because I pushed so hard for this, right? Yeah. And he's not the only one that wants this movie thing. This is not just a Dan Patrick project. There are others that want this high up, but he's been the biggest voice for it. And so so far he's getting what he wants now he's gonna have to probably compromise on the amount of money that's going into it. But yeah, there you go. I just think it's interesting because I you know I've only, this is only my second session and I just don't remember him being so active. Like you mentioned the face to camera videos, the on the ground videos, uh, and on the certain

issues he's chosen this session to really focus on. They're big projects. They're big projects. Yeah. Huge. So I just thought it was interesting hearing Brad's perspective on that. Absolutely. Well, Mary Lee thinks we're running us through that. Yeah. Let's talk about another big project this session. Brad Two Chambers reached a deal on water

infrastructure, which has been a huge part of the session. Not as much of a flashy issue, but very important and has taken a lot of the air out of the room in terms of negotiations and process. So give us the needs. Yeah, something was gonna happen on this. And we heard everyone and their mother talk about how this is going to be the water session, right? It's such a big problem. Water is Charles Perry, Senator Charles Perry often says water is a decade or decades long problem, not a biennium or years problem, right? You have to plan out 40, 50 years in advance,

especially at the rate Texas is growing in population and business footprint too. That's a big part of this. All these businesses coming in need a lot of water. So it's a big problem. They have struck a deal. It includes the top lines, two and a half billion dollars in a one time payment to the Texas Parks and Wildlife, to the Water Development Board. That's in the Supplemental Appropriations Bill, HB 500. Now I'm told that a chunk of that is already appropriated money to Parks and Wildlife that's

already waiting to be spent on projects. I don't know the budgetary nuances of it, why they're saying it's a two and a half billion dollars if there's already money allotted to it. However, keep in mind that a supplemental appropriations bill is a backtrack. It's funding, filling funding holes for the current biennium we're in, not for the next biennium

that the budget deals with so two and a billion there then has a constitutional amendment that will be on the ballot in In November that will allot one billion dollars into the Texas Water Fund every year The initial version was for ten years water fund every year. The initial version was for 10 years. That was, as I was told the original part of the deal now, things changed a bit and it was amended to 20 years on the house floor. So now it's a 20 billion dollar commitment over 20 years, provided it passes in November. Within SB 7, which is

the enabling legislation, has a 50-50 split in what this money is going to be spent on between new infrastructure and repairing existing infrastructure. That's new infrastructure would be new reservoirs. Also, what's the desalination plants, things like that, that don't exist right now. Repairing existing infrastructure would be fixing leaky pipes, and that's been a

big issue. The water fight is fascinating because it's not rural versus urban, it's different regions of the state versus the others. Like Houston has more than enough water, they don't need any more water, but they have leaky pipes and they have flood infrastructure they need. Up in East Texas, the problem is leaky pipes. Out in West Texas, the problem is no water. In Dallas, the problem is not enough water for the population that's coming. So trying to thread the needle on this, I'm sure it was very difficult because every different part of the state has a different need when it comes to water supply. You know when if you look in the hill country it's heavily reliant on wells and aquifers so

trying not to drain those and preserve that I don't know how anybody makes headway on this issue but they have. So the it's a 50-50 split on that. Another part of the deal is making SWIFT, which was an already existing water fund, eligible for that 50% of funding that is for new infrastructure. Then also it's making water and wastewater treatment plants eligible for SWIFT dollars. And then finally it gives the governor the ability to bypass that 50-50 split in the case of an emergency. If, heck, I don't know, whatever, something happens, some catastrophic thing happens and they need to have a 60-40 split in new infrastructure versus

fixing existing or reverse that probably more likely than they can do that. So that's generally the the outline of the deal. Representative Cody Harris laid it out in the House. SB 7 passed it, talked about the need for it. Senator Charles Perry laid out HGR 7 over in the Senate. That passed. This thing's moving along swimmingly. It will. Swimmingly.

Swimmingly. A water bill. Yeah. Well done, Bradley. Of all the things, this one actually had the fewest number of bumps in the road, it seems. Water. Bringing people together.

Yeah. Wouldn't believe it if you hadn't told me. Thanks, Bradley. We're going to take a if you hadn't told me. Thanks Bradley. We're going to take a quick break and hear from one of our sponsors. Did you know data centers support 364,000 jobs in Texas and contribute $3.5 billion in state and local taxes? These critical facilities boost the state's economy and power essential services. From video calls and online banking to healthcare

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much data in the near future, making data centers a vital investment for the future of Texas prosperity. To learn more visit center of your digital world.org slash Texas. And we're back. And Mary Lee's I just realized. We just realized this is your last in person podcast for a little while. Yes. Whoa. Yeah, it came up quickly.

Oh my gosh. I know. We just, in the hubbub of everything else, kind of neglected to remember that until just now. Yeah, 140 days passes by really quickly. Yeah, they actually do. Which is wild considering how late y'all have been up and how busy it's been. You know what they say?

Just a few. Time flies when you're having fun. That's what it is. I mean, really when you're that busy though, the day's really do fly by. How nervous are you to deal with the technical difficulties of remote podcasting again? Yeah, I'm not looking forward to that. And almost having you in person for many reasons, but especially just

considering I often feel alone as I've opined about before when it's just me and the boys, so I'll miss my buddy. Cause you can't, when you're virtual, you can't like look over and laugh or anything. Yeah. You're just on a screen. No side eyes. And you can't pick up social cues on a laptop. So he is a little different.

I'll be curious now though, that you've been in person if you can pick up on a lot more stuff. Probably. I think it'll be different. Yeah. Even with a, you know, well, let's hope so. With a lot of mileage between us. Yeah.

Okay. Well on that depressing note, Cameron, let's talk about, um, let's move on to another crazy issue that the Louisiana governor has certainly made a big issue. Um, significant changes to the expansion of Texas's medical cannabis program were negotiated over the last few days. Tell us where we're at. Well luckily, um, the issue of medical marijuana, cannabis legalization, is something that I was paying attention to in years past.

And this bill would seek to expand the Texas Compassionate Use Program. And what that essentially does is it allows individuals who use low dose THC for medical purposes to get a prescription for that. And this was working sort of in conjunction with SB3, which was the ban on certain products from being sold at retail locations, banning that. And then getting votes on SB 3 was seen as the trade-off for expanding Tea Cup. Well, what happened essentially is there was some things changed in the tea cup bill that members were upset about. There was supposed to be expansions or additional satellite locations. There was supposed to be additional conditions such as chronic pain added to qualifying conditions.

And that wasn't in this rewritten tea cup bill after the SB3 vote. And so we saw some social media chatter about this most poignantly from representative Tom Alverson who said he was quote deeply disappointed with this new rewrite. Then we got some updates from Alverson and Patrick saying they had some conversations behind the scenes and they had come to an agreement on some of the expansions that were promised for those votes. So what we see now is during the process of the Senate floor debate on HB 46, which

is this tea cup expansion bill, is there is an expanded eligibility, there's expanded qualifying conditions, adding regulatory provisions. So one of the big issues was just making sure that DPS can keep track of the individuals working and administrating the process of these low THC products. And then also enabling on-site storage, because one of the big issues is right now there's just not enough availability because the locations that are for people to get the product that they qualified for under teacup it would need to be transferred long distances Texas is a huge state this would allow for those products that people were using to be stored at locations closer to

them essentially so it could cut down on that wait time between also new licenses for these satellite locations as well so that ended up passing in the Senate there is a lot of floor speeches from both Democrats and Republicans essentially praising this this new expansion and so now these changes to HB 46 will need to be approved by the House because they were all added as amendments so they need to be approved and then once they're approved, HB 46 can be sent to Governor Greg Abbott and he can sign it into law. And I don't know if we're gonna talk about it today but I'll mention it because it's a similar issue.

Yeah I don't see it on the docket here but there was a huge press conference this week where as I mentioned SB3 is the ban on the low-dose THC products being sold in retail locations and Dan Patrick has made this a big issue that he's focused on. He held a press conference this week where he was flanked, uh, with all of his Republican senators, Tom Alverson was there, uh, law enforcement was there and out, you know, it was a bit, uh, ambiguous at the beginning what this press conference was going to be about because when the notice went out, it just said press

conference with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick with snacks and drinks. Everyone's like, Whoa. Wow. He's feeling generous at the end of the day. He had a great turnout. And I think it was because of the promise of snacks and drinks. Well, we show up, there's just a table in the middle of the, uh, Lieutenant Governor's press room covered, um, with a sheet and everyone's like I

don't know what this is it kind of looks like a dead body. Well one reporter cracked a joke he asked one of Patrick's staff he said do you have a time on the body or something everyone started laughing because it really did that was like your first impression you go in there's a blanket over the table or something. But once everyone rolled in he lifted the sheet and it was a bunch of the low-dose THC products out there. And Patrick started talking about the milligrams contained in the products, talked about how much they cost. At one point he tossed one of the products had a reporter. He was essentially saying the media has not been reporting fairly on the issue. I've reported on it a lot. I'll try to strike a balance here.

But it was a very interesting press conference, one like I haven't seen from the lieutenant governor before. And one of the interesting questions I thought one of the media members asked was, why are you so focused on an issue that's already passed? Why aren't you focusing on other bills that are still in consideration? You know, SB 3 has passed through both chambers. And he went back to the reason why he said this is such a big issue is that it's affecting kids. And so in really harping on the inability he sees as the media and not

reporting fairly on the issue. So... But it wasn't just kids that he got asked about. He said it's affecting adults as well. Yeah, well he got asked, you know, what about adults who want to buy this stuff? You keep talking about kids, what about them? And he said basically that's a stupid question. And ranted about that, yeah. But that was an interesting question as well. Another interesting insight was during this press conference,

media members were pushing Patrick on the issue of the veto power of the governor, because there's been a lot of public pressure coming from Hemp organizations and just people more generally in the public mounting public pressure on Abbott to veto SB 3. So he said during this press conference that he has total confidence in the governor, you know, you will know his decision when he makes it. He mentioned at another point that he's not worried about the governor vetoing SB3.

I'll just read his statement here and then we can move on, I'm sorry. He said, he said, quote, I know the governor, I know where his heart is, and I know where he wants to be to protect children and adults. Then he went on to say that Abbott is going to do what he's going to do. So interesting that the press conference was on a bill that's already passed through both chambers.

But this was essentially a campaign by Patrick to keep the issue at the forefront as there's been mounting pressure on the veto possibility of SB 3. Absolutely, and very interesting to hear his perspective on the governor too, which the lieutenant governor really does, I feel like thread the needle or tiptoe around those kinds of questions with the governor, trying really hard to strike a balance or not put pressure, but also, um, you know, knowing full well, he is arguably the most powerful statewide elected official at the same time, right? Within the governor.

So very interesting to watch that. Um, just how his posture was during the press conference about the governor and his potential veto. So we'll keep an eye on all of that. Cameron, thank you. Mary Lee. So let's talk about legislation, allowing a time of prayer in schools and requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms. Give us any feels. Yeah, this has

been legislation that's gone through the session kind of as a pair in previous sessions but ultimately failed. But this looks like it is headed to Governor Greg Abbott's desk. So there's Senate Bill 10, which is by Senator Phil King, and then Senate Bill 11 by Senator Mayes Middleton. And so SB 10 would require the display of the 10 commandments in classrooms. And it lays out very specific sizing, what the font needs to be legible for folks

with average vision. And then we've got SB 11 which would Allow a formal time of prayer in schools for a time of reading religious texts and specifies the Bible But also says other religious texts So that's SB 10 and SB 11 and a lot of the arguments surrounding both of these bills were kind of along the same lines. Representative James Talerico was one of the biggest, I guess, dissenters to these bills. He was arguing a lot about separation of church and state and his concerns that both of these bills would be violating that. Another conversation that happened surrounding these bills was, is this, like what version of the Ten Commandments will we be using?

That was a big thing. That was very interesting. Yes, that was really interesting. There was one amendment that said, okay, we should have to have the Ten Commandments in, I think it was four different languages so that kids can learn it in all these different languages and so that were fair to folks speaking different dialects and that one failed but I think that one might have been making more of a point of look this is there's a lot of different versions here some folks were saying well we're gonna do the

Protestant version the Catholic although they are the same in substance but they do vary a little bit with a few of the phrasing in the order. So there were a lot of amendments having to do with that and then there were some amendments to include various religions in the Time of Prayer Bill. Specifically Representative Gene Wu introduced multiple amendments that included Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism in the bill specifying because the Bible is the only religious text that was specified although it does offer the other religious texts can be used during the time of prayer. So a big conversation about separation of church and state and Tallarico really spearheaded that.

Representative Candi Noble was going back and forth with Tallarico about this and there was one kind of tense moment when Tallarico said, he asked her, you know, what are the commandments and then he asked her specifically about keeping the Lord's Day holy and he said, don't you think it's ironic that we're bringing up this bill on the Lord's Day speaking of the all this Sunday and she she kind of laughed she she she acknowledged yeah this is ironic but she also pointed out she said well Taylor Rico if you hadn't called a point of order which did end up in it being sent back to committee she said this would

have already been passed so that was kind of an interesting back and forth there and that went on for a while then. Talking about the commandments and Talarico is in seminary so he used that to talk about hey I'm studying the Bible and yet I think that we shouldn't be putting prayer in schools, we shouldn't be putting the Ten Commandments in classrooms because this is violating separation of church and state and that was something he really really focused on. So they did ultimately pass the Texas House, both of them. There were a whole lot of points of orders called on the bills, like I said there was the SB

10 that was sent back to committee after Tallerico's point of order. And so I'll just a little more info on the 10 commandments here. It says that it has to be put in a in the public school classroom is to be in a conspicuous place and then written in a font, like I said, that is legible to individuals with average vision anywhere in the classroom and then has to be at least 60 inches wide and 20 inches tall. So very specific measurements there. And then the text of the Ten Commandments does reflect the ones found in the King James version of the Bible, but like I

said it's not substantially different than the Ten Commandments recognized in Judaism and Catholicism. So those are on their way to Governor Greg Abbott's desk. We'll see what approach he takes to those but Sunday plus Ten Commandment Day. Yeah, you know, you can't say that they aren't hitting all the issues on Sunday It's like really thank you for your coverage Cameron talk about making Texas healthy again. Okay some heated debate between members of the house again on Sunday. I was just about to say that Sunday was a big day for a lot of different issues. Yeah. And an issue that I didn't again anticipate was going to produce the

type of debate that we saw, but there was a lot of back and forth between members once SB 25 came up on the floor. And essentially what SB25 is trying to do is require food products to include state mandated nutritional labeling. And there was a number of amendments that were offered. And there was a lot of back and forth. I detail some of that in the piece here.

I'm not gonna be able to go through it all here. What I will mention is at one point, because this was a long debate, many, many hours, and there was a shift in the energy at one point where it seemed as though, okay, maybe there is mounting opposition to SB 25 being able to be passed. We then saw the Senate author, Lois Kolkhorst, appear on the House floor and start talking with members, essentially working to get some of those those votes. It was

it was a very interesting experience seeing that because there was a call on a I believe it was a parliamentary inquiry by Terry Canales who essentially he I'll just read the quote here he said he said this to House Speaker Dustin Burrows are you aware there's a senator threatened to kill everybody's bills that's on that vote sheet and that was because there was an amendment that was proposed that was calling for a scientific review of some of these products that contain certain ingredients instead of the labeling, essentially shifting from a labeling to a review bill.

But the legislation did end up passing in the House, and there was an update later that the Senate did concur with those amendments so now it's headed to Greg Abbott's desk so this will become a reality very soon. Another big bill heading to the governor's desk. Cameron, thank you for your coverage. Let's talk about legislation banning NDAs and child sexual abuse cases. Mary Lee's unanimously passed in the Texas House. Yes. Update us. Yeah, I mean this legislation passed unanimously in both the Senate and the House, so pretty notable there. This bill

bans non-disclosure agreements, NDAs, and cases of child sexual abuse. So this bill was inspired by, the author said inspired by by various victims that were very instrumental and helping to bring forth this legislation. So Representative Jeff Leach carried House Bill 748 and he brought it successfully through the House I believe was the second week of April and then it was put on the Senate intent calendar. However the Senate ended up taking up Senator Angela Paxton's identical bill, Senate Bill 835, and that's what ultimately came back to the House the other day and passed unanimously. The speeches both, well at the committee hearings and the speeches when the

senator and the representative laid out this bill, it was very emotional because obviously this is a heavy topic. Child sexual abuse cases and then, so it's called Trey's Law, it's also known as Trey's Law and that's named after Trey Carlock who died by suicide in 2019 after he settled his civil lawsuit against Canna Cook camps, which is a big network of Christian camps based out of Missouri. His suit alleged repeated sexual abuse and negligence by a specific camp counselor, but his sister, Trey's sister, Elizabeth Karloch Phillips, she has been very active in this whole process online at the

committee hearings and everything and Representative Leach and Paxton worked very closely with her. She posted shortly after it passed she was just saying how overwhelmed she is and how this is such a great move for victims to show them that we don't want them to be silenced. That was essentially what she said. There was another individual, a victim who testified in favor of this legislation back when it was heard in committee, which is Cindy Klemishire. And she was recently in national headlines because her alleged abuser was a televangelist,

pastor of Gateway Church in Oklahoma and then she was in national headlines because he had just recently turned himself into state authorities. So this is just essentially to protect these victims from being silenced in these cases and this focus on children to avoid children feeling like they get trapped in this situation. That's what Leach said. Paxton said that this is a critical step forward for justice, transparency, and the protection of future victims.

And there were multiple bills that were filed that were very similar to this legislation, but ultimately it was Senate Bill 835 that made it through. So Trey's law is now headed to Governor Abbott's desk as well. This is where we're at in the session. Things just keep flooding the governor's desk. Yeah. Marlies, thank you for your coverage. Bradley, let's talk about an intriguing fight over a local bill that passed the House this week. Very inconspicuous subject matter, but very spicy behind the scenes. Yeah, so you remember when Dan Patrick had kind of an out of the blue press or town hall up in Grayson County about a cement kiln? Prior to session. Yeah, I had no idea what the heck that

was about other than a cement kiln the people didn't want in the community. Well, there's a lot more to it as it turns out. Now fast forward to the legislative session and there's legislation filed to create a study in Caracan County specifically or study generally of how cement kilns which are you know cement kilns aggregates they're all kind of the same thing maybe not exactly but they all deal with, you know, explosives on rocks and blowing up rocks and using that to make either cement or if it's limestone, whatever they make that, you use that, using that.

It's incredibly labor intensive and loud and dusty process and people just generally hate it because it looks gross and it sounds awful and yada yada yada. But it's necessary for a lot of different things. Well there's one going up in Grayson County near Dorchester, less than 10 miles away there is a global wafonductor plants in Sherman. And the issue here, more than just people not wanting it in their backyard, all of that is part of it too, is that Global Wafers, the plant, they're making this special kind of silicone wafer

for micro trips to operate whatever to operate, you know military planes, whatever Now they're growing there's a special process for growing crystals there that they use to make the wafer the silicone and the wafers But things have to be really still for that to happen so still that they have basically Anchored the entire facility that they're making this stuff into into the bedrock because it cannot move otherwise it screws it up. Now you introduce a cement kiln next to it and it's blasting the bedrock and the fear is that it would cause enough vibration to ruin the process. So the bill would cause would create a study that would see how the effects of this and whether it could actually

Impact this facility now. That's only kind of the the surface level the main thing is it would stop the permit being issued to the cement kiln and so The study being someone staring out of glass water does it rip? Yes, so you know, there are arguments, counter arguments on this. The microchip guys don't want this up because they say it's a first of all, it'll hurt them financially and logistically. But they say that, you know, it's a matter of national

security. Because we have microchip semiconductor shortage, and we need to produce more of that state side all of its produced over in China. Yada. Yada This is the only kind of facility in the US right now So that's why it's unique on the other side. It's property rights case. This company has gone through they cited They went through all the permitting they spent 50 million dollars trying to do this And now they're just gonna have the rug pulled out from one of them by the legislature so those are the competing questions here but it turned into quite a legislative fight because of all of vats in you know I'm actually in the Facebook group that's no no cement

kiln Grayson County or something like that it's actual grassroots opposition, there's actual grassroots opposition to this because people don't want this in their backyard, which I wouldn't either. Which happens all the time with TCEQ type permitting issues. But the big thing is not that. The big thing is this lobby fight between the aggregates and the semiconductor guys. Right? And that's what moved people in the legislature. Well, talk about the legislature then. How does this all work out in the House?

So, it passed the floor in the House. There was a lot of anticipation. It was introduced by Brooks Landgraf, who's the chair of natural resources, not natural resources, of environmental regulation. The bill is actually, uh, Shelley Luther, this was her bill, or at least it was Brian Bird Wells, I believe, in the Senate. And this was, she, this is in her district. She was pushing this hard. I'm assumed that Landgraf handled it for her on the floor because he's more experienced. He's, um, you know, very contentious issue. Right. And so it ended up passing by a pretty large margin. There was a point of order attempt on it and actually it had to do with the Bird Bill because they tried to argue first that in the caption the word near was misleading and that five

to ten miles away is not actually near. Well, the way it ties in the Bird Bill is how that got killed in the House originally was the Democrats arguing that the 75 miles that it would prohibit from being, I don't know, whatever the range was on that bill, prohibiting wind turbines from being close to whatever park, that that constituted near or didn't. And so then Cody Vassut gets up there and he argues, well, it's near because if I climb to the top of a tree, I can see it. So inside Parliamentary baseball there.

But back in committee, you had some members that were skeptical of this Steve Toth was one of them. He voted for the bill So that tells you Who was pushing hard for this and how high up this probably went to push this thing through? a couple other aspects of this there was a late filed bill by Birdwell that had passed the Senate quickly, like really late, just like last week. And it did not make it through the House, but that would have enabled state officials to engage in ex parte communications with the TCEQ, basically allowing them to pressure TCEQ not to grant a permit.

That didn't pass, but that was another attempt. And then finally, there's a $250 million allocation in the supplemental budget to the semiconductor fund, innovation fund, contingent on the passage of this first bill I was talking about that stops the permit. Kind of an odd stop to throw at the semiconductors in this. It's kind of weird. So a lot of layers to this, a lot of peace on it by the time this podcast goes out but there you go. Well I think it's a it's a very nuanced very insider issue because it it has to deal in essence with a Grayson County cement

center or cement processing center right but it's turned into this huge fight. And you know it said in committee the cement guys said there's a shortage of cement too. Well that's what I was gonna bring up is with the Growing number of different industries coming to Texas could we see legislation in the future? Where they attempt to designate certain zones within the state where it's like, okay, this is the cement kiln zone This is where we make all of our cement. This is our data center zone. And they place these different zones around.

Sounds like you're pushing for industrial policy, Cameron. Well, I'm just trying to think and anticipate. Like how this would manifest itself down the line. The type of farm, because to avoid these types of fights where, okay guys, we can't have the cement kiln next to a data center where they're making these wafers that need no vibrations at all like you were describing. That's a huge issue. So how do they sort that out? Are

they gonna sort it out on a case-by-case basis or are they gonna try and institute some blanket regulations around the state? The cement guys were saying, we've already put $50 million into this permitting process. And then the semiconductor guys go, we put $2.5 billion into this facility to build this. So which weighs more? Right.

It's interesting. It's very interesting. And I think, again, these are the legislative fights that happen, especially at this point in session session where if you were to ask folks what will be the big issues at the end of the session, what big bills are on the calendar that will be spicy. It's like, yeah, 10k commandments and prayer in school sounds like that should take up some time.

This was one that was highly anticipated and it just goes to show that even if it, it's seemingly mundane, um, topics, but it will still be depending on the stakeholders and how this all works out very, very hotly debated. So okay. Well, we have a couple of other stories that we're not going to be able to get to. I want to flag them here, permanent daylight savings, Texas time bill heading to governor Abbott's desk. A lot of very interesting conversations happening about that.

Some folks are, you know, who are pro this idea are disappointed with which way the time is being, yeah, Everyone seems to be confused about what daylight saving time does, which is fair. Like whether it means there's more light in the morning or what, but, um, I mean, even president Trump has tweeted out, uh out differing opinions on what he wants to he wants there to be a standard time that we follow year-round but everyone seems to be most people seem to be a little confused about okay which one is the one where you get home from work and there's still sunshine so which is daylight saving time by the way. Wabbit season, duck season, wabbit season, duck season. So it came to mind when Trump, when you mentioned the Trump thing going back in our line. You've

never seen Looney Tunes? No we've definitely seen Looney Tunes. We just wanted you to keep seeing duck season, wabbit season. So I hope you felt sufficiently alone in that so you kept going for a hot minute. But also Cameron you have a story, the Texas House passing a Texas Sheriff's and ICE Immigration Enforcement Contract Bill. This is SB 8. This was a huge, another border bill point of contention. Yeah, a huge issue.

Lots of changes that were made from introduction to where it's at now, where they're going to be headed to a conference committee. People are interested in understanding those changes. I detail all of them in the piece that's up on the side right now. Well done. Okay. Let's move on to the Tweetery section here. Oh, and also there's the NRA bill, the NRA, yeah, bill adding the NRA to Texas major events program delayed after significant democratic opposition. It did end up passing, but it was an interesting debate that occurred on the

floor over this. Again, if people are interested, because it turned into a bigger issue than I expected it to be, I detail all that in the piece, people can check it out if they want to read more about it. And some interesting bipartisan arguments too. Okay, let's move on to the Tweetery section. Mary-Lise, do you have anything for us? Mary-Lise, do you have anything for us? Well, I was going to mention that Elon Musk is officially stepping back from his role, his kind of particular role in the government, and he kind of wrote a little post the other night about saying, he said, I did my best to, you know, assist in reducing wasteful government

spending and his other, his other goals while serving the government. But I thought that was interesting. He's moving on to bigger and better things. So there you go. Well, because he could only be in that role for a certain amount of time. So they hit that date. And so it was he left once essentially the agreement was over and because he was

because he wasn't an actual appointed member like staff member or whatever yeah there was there was an end date yeah so it's not like there was a falling out or anything it's the nature it was just behind the scenes there was but like this is expected yeah It just was not necessarily known by some people, including myself. Very interesting. Cameron, what do you got for us? I'm frantically searching for something interesting to talk about. You could talk about your car. I could talk about my car. Well,

You talk about the storm. Well, we talk about the storm last night was also I'm so done with storms, like springtime storms. We've had so many hail warnings, so many crazy, and maybe that's because we just bought a house and I'm so nervous now about any storm. I know it's so sad, but it's not just index. My mom was like, Oh, you have a thunderstorm. It's so cozy. And I'm like, yeah, it's cozy when you grew up in Seattle and like, there's not a threat of hail or 80 mile per hour wind every time rain. I hear it's like flash flood warnings and risk of significant damage to life and property.

It's like a totally different ball game. We just had more this year than usual, Like a few here and there, no big deal. But yesterday I literally had to camp out, which is nothing Cameron had to do, but I was heading home from something and had to pull over in a bank drive-through and sit under the thing for a little while. Yeah, it was wild. Cameron, but tell us about your experience. Well, unfortunately, I had some car troubles yesterday after work and I was not at home. I was at an HEB parking lot. And so as I was waiting for some roadside assistance, the storm came through. So I had to ride out the storm in my little Ford Fiesta. Stranded in a big truck.

This is a tiny little commuter car. So when the winds were gusting and rain was falling, I was just sitting in my car, it's fogging up. I'm using a t-shirt I had in the car to like wipe out wipe the windshield so I could see out of um and see what was going on but carts were flying over the place trees were dropping luckily my car was okay and luckily I was only a half mile from home but you're saying you were watching all this crazy stuff happening in the parking lot nothing happened to your car nothing grateful for that yeah aside from it being dead right now yeah

your car. I'm grateful for that. Aside from it being dead right now. But no like body damage. So thank goodness for that. Well, I'll throw this out to the listeners. If they know any good mechanics, drop the wrecks in the comment section because I need to get a new starter on my car. And I need a mechanic I can trust. So here's the thing in this office, as soon as one person starts to have car issues, several others do. It usually comes in batches of three. So everyone watch out.

Well, I've got an issue with my windows, so that might have spurred it on. That's true. That wasn't a car issue. I needed someone to blame. Thank you, Mary Lee. Yeah, there you go. While everyone stays safe out there and flash flood warnings because yeah you're right Mary-Li, this is not the last at least little instance of rain

or storm that we have on the forecast for the next week. Oh goodness Bradley. Hmm well I just saw that Sydney, just kidding. What did you say? I said I was well I just saw that Sydney Sweeney was just kidding. Oh no I actually want to highlight the fact that no serious note so representative Alma Allen she was on the floor this week and got she ended up having to go to the hospital for nobody really knows what happened but she I saw this morning that she's okay and she was discharged from the hospital so that is good that was quite a scare on the floor when that happened and yeah so glad she's okay. No more members should be hospitalized. This session.

It had been, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's been, there's been a lot of sad things that have been announced on the floor. So, yeah, but she seems to be doing okay. Which is unfortunately in many ways, the nature of life, when you have 150 people, um, in a room together for 140 days, things can happen in your life.

But, well, probably thanks for bringing it down to end the podcast on that note. Yeah. My Atlanta. But good news, good news to end. Yes, absolutely. Okay, well, I'm going to vacate this dog off of my lap. And this dog, yes.

Is he squatting? He's majorly squatting. He's really hoping that squatter's bill doesn't get resurrected, huh, buddy? Doesn't get resurrected. It passed, didn't it? Yeah. I was trying to think.

Yeah, it did. It totally passed. You a little tired over there? No, not at all. Well, folks on that note, thanks for listening to the weekly roundup. We appreciate you tuning in each and every week. We'll wrap up session in some way, shape and form next week. Wild to think about. 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.