The latest 83rd Legislative Session news from The Texas Tribune.
Should groundwater districts be allowed to require permits for drilling companies wanting to withdraw water for hydraulic fracturing? Oil companies oppose the idea, and on Tuesday, the Senate Natural Resources Committee debated the issue. Full Story
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With eight weeks to go in the legislative session, lawmakers got a running start at their big issues: water, education and the budget. Full Story
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The Texas rhetoric around a key tenet of federal health reform reached a high-water mark on Monday, with back-to-back press conferences at the Capitol featuring political leaders on both sides of the aisle. Full Story
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UPDATED: As debates over gun control intensify across the nation, state senators on Tuesday tentatively approved a measure allowing Gov. Rick Perry to offer economic incentives to gun manufacturers that want to move to Texas. Full Story
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State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, the Republican chairwoman of the House Public Health Committee, gives a whiteboard math lesson in this video posted by Gov. Rick Perry's office. Full Story
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At this morning's TribLive conversation, University of Texas System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa and Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp talked about the per-student decline in state funding of higher education and whether excellence is achievable on a lean budget. Full Story
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As state Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, detailed his objections to House Bill 5 on Tuesday, what he did not mention is that whether students enroll in challenging courses and the number of state exams they must take could affect his livelihood. Full Story
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This session’s effort to make state government more transparent and ethical — spearheaded by some of the Legislature’s most conservative members and its most liberal ones — has attracted the strangest of bedfellows. Full Story
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Nearly a month after the Harris County DA dropped barratry charges against Rep. Ron Reynolds, the Montgomery County DA has issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with an alleged quarter-million-dollar kickback scheme. Full Story
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A bill advancing through the state Legislature could drastically decrease the number of legal abortion facilities in the state. Full Story
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The state's drought and the resulting need for conservation is starting to affect voters who are not usually aware of water shortages — people in the suburbs, with lush, thirsty lawns. Full Story
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Halfway through his first legislative session as chancellor of the Texas A&M University System, and after a year and a half on the job, the benefits of John Sharp’s political savvy are on full display. Full Story
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Full video of Ross Ramsey's 3/21 TribLive conversation with three first-term lawmakers: state Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, and state Reps. Scott Turner, R-Frisco, and Gene Wu, D-Houston. Full Story
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The automatic federal spending cuts known as the sequester could hit special education and programs for low-income students hardest. And state lawmakers are unlikely to come up with cash to fill the federal hole. Full Story
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Eleanor Kitzman, the state's insurance commissioner, will be out of a job at the end of the session if she's not reappointed by Gov. Rick Perry and approved by the Texas Senate. Full Story
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Call it the Rick Perry gold rush: The governor wants to bring the state’s gold reserves back from a New York vault to Texas. Full Story
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A panel of state senators on Tuesday considered two bills that would take drastically different approaches to modifying laws regarding end-of-life care in Texas. Full Story
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A state Senate bill aims to give extra protections to people who film on-duty police officers with their smartphones or other devices. The author, Sen. Craig Estes, says the measure addresses charges that could be filed as retribution. Full Story
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Sen. Dan Patrick's Senate Bill 2 is the most ambitious attempt to expand the state’s charter school system since it was established in 1995. It will have to pass a Legislature that defeated more modest proposals two years ago. Full Story
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A Facebook update state Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, posted on Tuesday suggesting that mothers should be "modest" while breast-feeding their babies in public has nearly 1,000 comments — most of them outraged. Full Story
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