State of Texas: ‘Contract with Texas’ aims to push House further right

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Both chambers of the Texas legislature are facing new pressures concerning their priorities in next year’s session.

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick gave State Senators 57 items to study on his list of interim charges.

Come January 2025, the Senate will hit the ground running at the start of the 89th Legislative Session,” said Patrick in an online statement. “The priorities of the conservative majority of Texans will be accomplished, including school choice, continued property tax relief, and strengthening the power grid.”

Patrick says the list was determined by reviewing suggestions from Texas’ 31 senators with his staff.

A few of the charges focus on housing affordability, including how it relates to homelessness and evaluating how large-scale purchases of homes by investors affect home prices.

The Lt. Governor is also asking senators to examine hemp products like Delta 8 and Delta 9, which could lead to tougher regulations on the sale of the products.

Other big interim charges include border security and the effect Operation Lone Star has had on personnel, energy infrastructure and potentially regulating artificial intelligence.

Patrick called for reports and recommendations on all the interim charges by Dec. 1.

Meanwhile, in the Texas House, some Republican members are pushing to change the way the chamber does business. They joined with conservative candidates to sign the “Contract with Texas,” a commitment to procedural changes that they say will make the House more efficient in passing conservative priorities.

“Texans are fundamentally annoyed, frustrated, disappointed with the obstruction, the dysfunction within the Texas House,” said Mitch Little, the GOP nominee for House District 65 said.  “Our desire in creating the Contract with Texas is to create a framework where a future speaker is going to have a chance to succeed in ways that are going to inspire Republican voters and empower people in the legislature to do the things that they send us down there to do.”

Little, who served as a lawyer for Attorney General Ken Paxton during his impeachment trial, will face Democrat Detrick Deburr in November in the Republican-leaning district.

The contract calls for candidates for House Speaker to solicit support from only Republicans, to strip Democrats from committee chair positions, and give all Republican priorities a vote before considering any Democratic bills.

The contract is signed by representatives Brian Harrison, J.M. Lozano, Nate Schatzline, Tony Tinderholt and Steve Toth. Little is among 18 other conservative candidates who signed on.

“What we’re trying to do here with this contract is to put the voters back in charge, be responsive to the will of the voters that have elected Republicans,” said State Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian. “We are trying to reform the House. And my goal is to make it Republican once again.”

Republican Speaker Dade Phelan has described the two sessions he’s presided over as the most conservative in Texas history. As evidence, he points to legislation like the “constitutional carry” bill that expanded gun rights in the state, funding for investments in border security, as well as laws banning teaching critical race theory in schools and banning Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs in higher education.

But a wing of the Republican party pushing to oust Phelan says he hasn’t done enough, pointing to specific conservative legislation that failed to pass.

Harrison and Little point to House Bill 20, a sweeping border security measure that would have created a state border patrol unit. They also point to measures to ban local governments from hiring lobbyists and ban some foreign citizens from buying property.

“They try to blame the Democrats, that’s a convenient foil,” Harrison said. “That’s an excuse when liberal bills pass and conservative bills die.”

Harrison and others who signed on to the letter faulted Phelan for allowing Democrats to lead some House committees. They vowed to work to end that bipartisan practice and adopt a system similar to the U.S. Congress where only members of the majority party lead committees.

Phelan faces a competitive primary runoff against David Covey in his Southeast Texas district. If he survives the May runoff, he already faces at least one Republican challenging him for the speakership – Cypress representative Tom Oliverson. When he announced his plan to run, Oliverson vowed that Democrats would not serve as committee chairs.

A key issue for candidates is “school choice,” Governor Greg Abbott’s priority to establish state-funded subsidies for private school tuition.

“I think that voters in Texas will have an opportunity to see those priorities come to fruition under someone else’s leadership,” Little said.

Democrats, however, warn Republicans that instituting the “contract” would come with blowback.

“The people behind that movement, those representatives, in my opinion, they couldn’t lead a silent prayer,” said House Democratic Caucus Chair Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio.

“Going back to the days of Sam Houston, there have always been participants from both parties or from multiple parties at the leadership table. That is the process of the Texas House. It’s a deliberative body. And if those representatives don’t like it, I’m sure they can find a vacancy in Congress,” Fischer said. “That’s where all of this hyper-partisan rhetoric, that’s where it actually fits, in Washington, not in Austin.”

Fischer said Democrats may refuse to lend their support to bills that require two-thirds support if their leadership roles are minimized. Constitutional amendments, for example, require 100 votes. Republicans have 86.

“It’s going to be pretty hard to get things done,” he said. “Be careful what you wish for.”

Peaker plant to provide more power to ERCOT

Abbott commemorated the groundbreaking of a new natural gas plant in Maxwell, just east of San Marcos, on Tuesday. The plant is designed to switch on when the grid hits peak demand and will provide enough power for about 38,000 homes.

“To keep the Texas economy booming, we need more affordable, reliable power,” said Abbott at the groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday. “That’s why plants like these here in Central Texas are so incredibly important. When grid demand is at its peak, these plants will quickly provide power for the grid even as we set new demand records for power every single summer.”

The “peaker plant” marks the second of its kind coming to Texas, adding a total of 380 megawatts to the grid. The Caldwell County facility will be developed by the Lower Colorado River Authority, who expects to complete construction by 2025.

LCRA CEO Phil Wilson said they intend to take advantage of new incentives the legislature is providing through the $10 billion Texas Energy Fund. Wilson said they hope to earn $10-20 million in state incentives if they meet completion targets.

“The fund is a great resource, but we also saw the growth in our state and the need for this kind of power supply,” Wilson said. “The legislature’s leadership, with the governor’s direction, and the opportunity to come in and be part of the solution long term is really critical.”

Abbott said Texas is seeing the impact of the legislature’s efforts to strengthen the grid after the deadly grid failure of February 2021. He said Texas has added 3,800 megawatts to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid over the last year and will add another 7,300 in the next year.

One megawatt can power about 200 homes in peak periods, according to ERCOT, so those additional megawatts can cover more than two million more homes.

“That is an extraordinary benefit to the Texas power grid. What is happening here is actually part of an intense effort by the state to add more power to the grid,” Abbott said.

Democratic state senator Judith Zaffirini also stressed the need for more “dispatchable” power — that is, oil and gas sources that can be dispatched on demand, rather than the more uncertain renewable sources like solar and wind.

“We rely so much on solar and wind. But we have solar when the sun shines and wind when the wind blows. So we need more dispatchable energy and that is exactly what this peaker plant will do,” Zaffirini said.

Family sues after school district determined peanuts in allergic student’s locker was not bullying

The family of a former Lake Travis High School football player is suing the Lake Travis Independent School District, including the superintendent and athletic director, after fellow football players put peanuts in their son’s locker.

In the lawsuit, which was filed on April 6, the family alleges the teens knew their teammate was severely allergic and the district failed to take any action to prevent bullying against their son.

In a statement to KXAN, the district said it disagreed with the allegations in the lawsuit.

“We take all allegations of bullying and harassment seriously. We responded immediately when we learned of this situation, conducting a thorough investigation,” Lake Travis ISD officials said. “The safety of our students and staff is our highest priority.”

KXAN also contacted the Lake Travis ISD employees named in the lawsuit, but none have commented on the matter.

KXAN investigators previously reported the district did not initiate a bullying investigation until after the student’s parents testified at a November school board meeting more than a month after the incident happened.

The lawsuit claims the student’s mother, Shawna Mannon, had already met with the Lake Travis ISD superintendent before that school board meeting, and “the district failed to address the ongoing bullying issues.”

The suit also claims the student’s mother met with the high school’s assistant principal days after the incident and was told any disciplinary actions would be handled by the athletic director, who is also the high school’s head football coach. The family tells KXAN that the students involved were benched from playing in two football games.

Mannon has not provided an additional statement to KXAN for this report.

According to district officials, it launched a bullying investigation after the school board meeting, where Mannon testified but determined the incident did not meet the legal definition of bullying. The Texas Education Code defines bullying as “an act or pattern of acts that physically harms a student or materially disrupts the educational process.”

The district said it also worked with other law enforcement agencies and consulted the assistant district attorney’s office, but ultimately, the school police department decided criminal charges were not warranted.

The district told KXAN the Texas Education Agency reviewed the incident in its entirety. After that review, TEA determined that the district had addressed all concerns with regard to potential bullying and food allergy compliance, and found no violations of law or policy.

The lawsuit claims the high school’s principal “failed to promptly take interim action to prevent bullying during the investigation, but also investigated and produced a report that fell well short of LTISD’s policy standards for appropriateness.”

According to his mother, the student transferred to Leander ISD’s Vandegrift High School in March. The lawsuit states the move was to “escape the harassment” and came after “enduring six months of assault, harassment, and bullying.” The lawsuit also states the family sold their family home to move outside of LTISD attendance boundaries.

The family is suing the district for $1.5 million and demanding that it mandate additional training on how to intervene to stop student harassment and adopt policies that give specific guidelines to staff on addressing student complaints.

The lawsuit also gives more details about the Oct. 6 incident inside the locker room. The family alleges two students “scattered peanuts” throughout their son’s locker and recorded the act. It alleges that one of the students “attempted to clean out the peanuts” the next day by emptying the cleats and one of the players “threw peanuts at him.”

The lawsuit states the football player told his teammates putting peanuts in his locker and on his uniform could result in his death and that he showed his teammates the epi-pen he carries as a precaution.

“When he retrieved his uniform, he found it, along with his cleats, covered in peanuts, which triggered an allergic reaction,” the lawsuit stated. “Since [the student] did not ingest the peanuts or wear the contaminated uniform, he did not require emergency medical treatment.”

Report: 40% of top Texas election officials resign each presidential cycle

As election officials in Texas and nationwide face increased pressure and harassment, a new report shows a steady increase in the turnover rate of top administrators.

A Tuesday report from the Bipartisan Policy Center shows nationwide, turnover grew from 28% in 2004 to 39% in 2022. The report looked at turnover rate data from the years 2000 to 2024 amongst election officials, which it defines as a “change in a jurisdiction’s chief election administrator since the November general election held four years prior.”

In Texas, there was a spike in the number of election administrators quitting in the mid-2000s — the turnover rate in 2004 was 28% and rose to 44% in 2008. It dropped again to 30% in 2012 and rose to 40% in 2016 — a rate that has stayed relatively the same since.

“We did this intentionally to add some historical context to current conversations around turnover, which tend to frame it as a tsunami or an exodus of local election officials,” said Rachel Orey, co-author of the study.

Researchers cited threats to election officials as some of the main contributing factors for the increasing turnover. Approximately 25% of local election officials reported abuse, harassment or threats, according to a 2022 Early Voting Information Center survey of local election officials.

“It’s draining on their psychological and physical safety,” Orey said.

Election officials in urban areas experience more threats, the report shows. Two-thirds of officials in jurisdictions with more than 250,000 residents reported being harassed, while just 20% of respondents from areas with a population under 25,000 said the same.

Dana DeBeauvoir — who oversaw elections as Travis County Clerk for more than 30 years — said she has major concerns about these trends and the future of elections. DeBeauvoir retired in 2022.

“These are your neighbors and friends who are actually doing this job…most elections administrators are appointed, which means they don’t have a lot of personal power to protect themselves,” she said.

Administering elections has become more complex, and the report says new voting laws and cybersecurity threats are contributing to the increasing turnover rate.

“This has become an I.T. kind of job, so that’s got a lot of complicated moving parts,” DeBeauvoir said. “You want to have lots of eyes looking in and lots of checks and balances in order to maintain election security. So it’s not an easy job. And it’s even harder to do when you got somebody screaming at you.”

Because of the increased demands, the report says “administering free and fair elections has become a professionalized, year-round affair.”

Despite this, 34% of jurisdictions do not have a full-time election administrator, and an additional 17% have one full-time election worker, according to a cited 2020 EVIC survey.

“The number one thing I hear from election officials, they really care about democracy. They want the election to go well, but they’re tired,” Orey said.

Researchers note that increasing funding to election offices will help with things like hiring additional staff to help them meet their needs.

“Our research shows that election administrators are well prepared to administer the 2024 presidential election,” Orey said.

The report shows 65% of 2024 administrators have experience working in presidential elections.

For solutions, the report recommends that state governments offer more pay for election workers and create succession plans to help pass down knowledge from years of experience.

“These administrators are doing a desperately needed job. We need competence and continuity in this work, we need to make sure that these folks are supported in their community,” DeBeauvoir said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.