The Evening Brief: May 21, 2013

New in The Texas Tribune

•    Multiple Bills Key to Holding Fragile Budget Deal in Place: "Tuesday has turned into a pivotal day in the state's budget-planning process, as a major deadline looms for a key piece of legislation. Other bills are also crucial to keeping in place the deal struck last week by the House and the Senate."

•    Dewhurst Urges Action on Abortion Bills: "Ahead of a Wednesday bill-passing deadline, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has sent an email to supporters urging them to ask their senators to vote out several anti-abortion measures."

•    Senate Votes to Extend UT-Austin's Admissions Cap: "The Senate approved an extension of the University of Texas at Austin's cap on automatic admissions under the state's top 10 percent rule on Tuesday, and members rejected efforts to do away with the rule entirely."

•    Nominations Committee Approves UT Regent Nominees: "The Senate Nominations Committee unanimously voted Tuesday to approve Gov. Rick Perry's three nominees to the University of Texas System Board of Regents. The nominees must still be confirmed by the full Senate."

•    Power Grid Poised to Be Put to the Test Again: "It's shaping up to be another difficult summer for the Texas power grid. A national nonprofit has projected that the Texas grid will have the lowest percentage of power reserves this summer of any region of the country."

Culled

•    Conservative group True the Vote sues IRS over being subject to heightened scrutiny (The Washington Post): "True the Vote, a Houston-based voter watchdog group that arose from a tea party organization, filed suit in federal court Tuesday against the Internal Revenue Service over the agency’s processing of its request for tax-exempt status."

•    In letter to Holder, Jackson Lee opposes True the Vote’s request for IRS tax-exempt status (Houston Chronicle): "Though Texas Rep. Kevin Brady joined True the Voter founder Catherine Engelbrecht in blasting the Internal Revenue Service for targeting her conservative advocacy group at a high-profile House committee hearing last Friday, the group faces an emerging opponent in another Texan in Congress — Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee."

•    Whitmire: Campus-carry 'doesn’t have votes' in Senate (San Antonio Express-News): "A Houston Democrat who has almost single-handedly controlled the flow of proposed legislation to allow guns in college classrooms said Tuesday the bill doesn’t have the 21 votes needed in the Senate to pass its final hurdle."

•    Cornyn asks former IRS boss to apologize for the agency’s targeting of Texas conservatives (Houston Chronicle): "Sen. John Cornyn asked former Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman to apologize to his Texas constituents whose organizations suffered heightened scrutiny from the IRS. … 'Mr. Shulman, I wonder if you have any words of apology for my constituents and others who feel like the public trust has been violated by the IRS?' Cornyn asked during a Senate Finance Committee hearing today."