Texas Government News

House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, watches from the sidelines as debate continues on SB 1 on April 4, 2013.

Mexico's reluctance to deliver water to Texas under the terms of a decades-old treaty has prompted the state's top environmental regulatory agency to enlist help from the U.S. State Department.

On May 20, the Texas legislature passed SB 817. This bill had been requested by Texas Libertarians.

While some gay-rights supporters praised Thursday's vote by the Boy Scouts of America in favor of formally accepting openly gay scouts, others were disappointed in the group's decision to continue to block gay scout leaders.

The Texas Railroad Commission could expire and cease to exist if lawmakers don't add it to a sunset safety net bill by Monday.

When Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana wanted to sell his plan to replace his state's income tax with a higher sales tax, he pointed to Texas as both the problem and the solution.

As of Tuesday, reported the Austin American-Statesman, the campus carry gun bill is dead for yet another year, due to "Senate Democrats who have blocked it from coming to a final vote." Used to be that 18-year-olds complained that their government wouldn't let them legally drink beer but was more than happy to send them off in a military uniform to ... (more)

After days of jockeying and one-upsmanship, the Texas House and Senate each approved measures Wednesday evening critical to passing their next two-year budget.

Nearly 2,000 people went to Gov. Rick Perry 's website in January to sound off on how lawmakers should cut taxes by $1.8 billion.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday afternoon said he was sad to learn that the Boy Scouts of American voted to allow openly gay members.

Top state leaders proclaimed that the 2013 legislative session would focus on the basics of building Texas' future, and infrastructure became the buzzword.

The state of Texas is turning down billions of federal dollars that would have paid for health care coverage for 1.5 million poor Texans.

State lawmakers have given final approval to a bill requiring an audit of Gov. Rick Perry's deal-closing Texas Enterprise Fund.

Police say Ebel killed Department of Corrections Director Tom Clements and father-of-three Nate Leon in Colorado and then drove to Texas where he got in a shootout with police March 21 and was killed.

It will likely be up to Texas voters to decide whether the state should dip into its Rainy Day Fund to pay for water infrastructure.

Last week, Gov. Rick Perry invited Sens. Rodney Ellis, Robert Duncan and other legislators to the signing of the Michael Morton Act, a measure aimed at preventing wrongful convictions in Texas.

This newspaper has been open to compromises regarding the number of STAAR exams required for high school students, but legislators are going too far in their decision that high-performing students don't need to take all of the state reading and math exams currently required in grades three through eight.

He was appointed chairman of the Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation this week, after serving as a board member since 2005.

Texas came a step closer to requiring some applicants for unemployment benefits to first undergo drug testing, when lawmakers gave final approval to a Republican-backed bill mandating such checks on Wednesday.

A bill allowing for so-called "school marshals" to have access to a gun on school ground is headed to Texas Gov.