Monday, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (R), released his list of interim charges to all Senate committees.

Every legislative cycle, the leaders of each respective legislative chamber issue interim charges for each committee to study in preparation for the next legislative session. Every lawmaker has the ability to request specific charges to be included on the list, but in the Texas Senate, it is ultimately the Lieutenant Governor who makes the final decision on which charges or priorities will be studied. Here are some highlights from the Senate list:

Areas of Interest/Concern:

 Committee on Border Security

• Resource Allocation: Examine and report on the impact on members of the Texas National Guard and essential professions that have employees actively serving on state active duty. Review the availability of existing border barrier materials that remain unused by the Federal Government and report on whether Texas may make use of these materials to secure the border.
  • Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced an unprecedented state response to border security concerns in March of 2021 called Operation Lone Star (OLS). He did so, in the midst of having already received primary election challengers and the ongoing 87th legislative session. The legislature eventually allocated nearly $3 billion for the effort. Now, over one year into OLS, many Texans are asking questions about the overall efficacy of the state’s current strategy in addressing the ongoing border security crisis and whether the proverbial juice has been worth the squeeze on state border security funding altogether given that the crisis has only gotten worse.

 Committee on Business and Commerce 

• Blockchain and Virtual Currencies: Study current state and federal regulations surrounding blockchain and virtual currencies. Examine how these technologies impact industries such as banking, business, and electricity. Make recommendations to protect consumers while encouraging innovation. Monitor the implementation of House Bill 1576 and House Bill 4474, 87th Legislature.
  • The popularity of cryptocurrencies continues to grow, entering a more mainstream use between individuals and businesses as a means of exchange. As that popularity has grown, so has the government’s interest in its regulation under the guise of ‘consumer protection’.

Committee on Education

• Parent Empowerment: Review Texas’ existing parental rights and responsibilities in current law. Evaluate current public school practices toward parental and community engagement related to” curriculum and learning materials, campus and district management, governance, accessibility to school officials, and data usage and privacy. Make recommendations to enable parents to exert a greater influence on their child’s learning environment, including enacting meaningful change at their public school campus or district, and affirm parents as primary decision-makers over their child’s schooling options.
  • Patrick has publicly announced his intention to focus on a renewed effort of school choice initiatives. It is unclear whether those proposals will match those of Governor Abbott’s, and whether the House, which has historically opposed such efforts, will consider such proposals.

 

• Bond Efficiency: Conduct a comprehensive review of the school district bond issuance process. Specifically, review public notice and disclosure requirements, the bond election process, procurement requirements, and how unused bond proceeds may be utilized. Study the best practices implemented by school boards and make recommendations to improve bond issuance efficiencies.
  • School districts and municipalities are the most heavily indebted types of government jurisdictions, whereas much of the debt itself is supported by property taxpayers. Local governments in Texas have routinely racked up increasing debt, stifling future prosperity. Reforms like efficiency audits, zero-based budgeting, and requiring that bond elections are held on a uniform election date in November would go a long way to improve the bond system.

Committee on Finance

• Property Tax Relief: Examine and recommend ways to reduce Texans’ property tax burden. Review and report on proposals to use or dedicate state revenues in excess of the state spending limit to eliminate the school district maintenance and operations property tax.
  • Republicans have controlled every statewide office and held a majority in the Texas Legislature for nearly two decades. Despite promises to the contrary, property tax burdens have only increased. Efforts have been made in recent legislative sessions to set Texas on a path towards property tax elimination, which TFR supports, however, only efforts seeking to provide relief through gimmicks and to special classes of Texans have ultimately prevailed. It has been reported that Texas lawmakers can potentially expect a near $25 billion surplus going into the next legislative session. TFR supports using surplus dollars to provide true property tax relief while also simultaneously cutting spending and setting Texas on a path toward ultimate property tax elimination.

 

• Tax Exemptions: Examine Texans’ current tax exemptions and report on whether adjustments are merited because of inflation or any other factors.
  • Tax exemptions routinely translate to a tax hike for whoever else does not qualify for the exemption.

 

• Operation Lone Star: Monitor appropriations and spending supporting Operation Lone Star. Evaluate and report on the effectiveness of spending to secure the southern border. Identify and report on resources needed to ensure support for the State National Guard, as well as overall resources necessary for border security for future legislative consideration.
  • Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced an unprecedented state response to border security concerns in March of 2021 called Operation Lone Star (OLS). He did so, in the midst of having already received primary election challengers and the ongoing 87th legislative session. The legislature eventually allocated nearly $3 billion for the effort. Now, over one year into OLS, many Texans are asking questions about the overall efficacy of the state’s current strategy in addressing the ongoing border security crisis and whether the proverbial juice has been worth the squeeze on state border security funding altogether given that the crisis has only gotten worse.

Committee on Local Government

• Property Tax Reform: Review the effect of Senate Bill 2 (86th Legislature), the Texas Property Tax Reform and Transparency Act of 2019, and related legislation passed by the 87th Legislature. Make recommendations for further property tax reform and relief.
  • Republicans have controlled every statewide office and held a majority in the Texas Legislature for nearly two decades. Despite promises to the contrary, property tax burdens have only increased. Efforts have been made in recent legislative sessions to set Texas on a path towards property tax elimination, which TFR supports, however, only efforts seeking to provide relief through gimmicks and to special classes of Texans have ultimately prevailed. It has been reported that Texas lawmakers can potentially expect a near $25 billion surplus going into the next legislative session. TFR supports using surplus dollars to provide true property tax relief while also simultaneously cutting spending and setting Texas on a path toward ultimate property tax elimination.

 

• Taxpayer Funded Lobbying: Study how governmental entities use public funds for political lobbying purposes. Examine what types of governmental entities use public funds for lobbying purposes and what level of transparency is available to the public. Make recommendations to protect taxpayers from paying for lobbyists who may not represent taxpayers’ interests.
  • TFR has spoken openly about this issue and advocated for a ban on the practice. TFR believes it is immoral for government jurisdictions to use taxpayers’ money to work against their own interests. This issue has also been a longtime legislative priority of the Republican Party of Texas.

 

• Efficiency Audits: Study the concept of efficiency audits for cities, counties and special purpose districts and under what circumstances they should be performed. Evaluate whether efficiency audits provide Texans tools to combat wasteful government spending and report whether they are needed before local government tax ratification elections.
  • The legislature recently required school districts interested in proposing a bond seeking additional money to first conduct an efficiency audit and publish their findings before going to voters. That same requirement should be extended to cities, counties and special purpose districts.

Committee on Natural Resources and Economic Development 

• Economic Development Programs: Review the programs in Chapters 380 and 381 of the Local Government Code. Consider the benefits of each program in generating economic development. Make recommendations for improvements to Chapters 380 and 381 to increase transparency and accountability and the effectiveness of the programs.
  • This is studying how best to make available additional corporate subsidies and welfare programs, like the existing Texas Enterprise Fund, which TFR has sounded the alarm on for years. Programs like these defeat the idea of free enterprise and instead pick winners over losers.

Committee on State Affairs

• Elections Enforcement: Evaluate the impact of the Court of Criminal Appeals’ ruling in Stephens v. State will have on criminal prosecution in Texas. Additionally, study ways in which the Secretary of State’s office can respond promptly to reports of Election Code violations. Review the process by which the Secretary of State receives and reports election results, including any internal processes to verify the results reported by county elections administrators. Make recommendations to improve the accuracy and timeliness of election results reported by the Secretary of State on the day of an election. Make recommendations that will allow consistent enforcement of election laws across the state.
  • In a recent Special Legislative Session, the House decided to decrease the penalty on voter fraud for what was dubbed as the omnibus ‘Election Integrity’ legislation. There was no mention of correcting this issue.

 

• Investment Practices: Study the investment practices of financial services firms and how those practices affect the state’s public pensions. Make recommendations to ensure the state’s public pension funds are not being invested to further political or social causes.
  • Many of the same corporations that have adopted what has come to be known as ‘woke’ policies also receive taxpayer money.

 

Not Mentioned:

After reviewing the list of charges, it is apparent that it is a mixed bag. The list included many major conservative legislative priorities but there are still some that are left out completely. Here are major policy issues that are both legislative priorities of activists and poll extremely high with conservatives that Republican leadership in the Texas Senate appear to be ignoring:

 Vaccine Passports 

• The list has no mention of this atrocious attack on the civil liberties of all Texans. The Texas House is already complicit in enabling thousands of Texans to lose their livelihoods because they refused to be a part of forced medical experiments. The Texas Legislature chose not to address this issue last legislative session, despite thousands of Texans complaining about the issue.

 

Gender Modification 

• Despite the Texas Attorney General declaring gender modification on children as child abuse, leadership in the Texas House has decided that it again has no plans to take action to end this barbaric practice on children. In the last legislative session, the House killed efforts to end this practice multiple times.

What Does it All Mean? 

Ultimately, this is nothing more than a public-facing list of priorities by leadership in the Senate, but it does give the everyday Texan a peek into what topics or issues will be focused on. Historically the list has not been exhaustive and almost undoubtedly other policy issues will be the subject of much deliberation.

It is apparent however that both the Senate and House of Representatives have different priorities in many policy areas, and what’s more, is that many of the issues important to activists in the majority political party are at least for now being ignored.

The good news is that this gives grassroots activists a headstart in attempting to force the hand of elected officials to prioritize and pass legislation prioritized by them. The first step is making sure your voices are heard in the party convention processes. If interested, check out our series on how you can help as we inch closer to the conventions this summer.

 

House Interim Charges