Capitol Update

​Additional Interim Charges

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick released seven additional interim charges to Texas Senate committees this morning. They supplement the 74 charges he issued earlier this year, in January and March, and bring the Senate’s interim workload to 81 charges before the 90th Legislature convenes in January. Here is the list of additional interim charges, and the charges are broken down below.

Business and Commerce Committee

· Preventing Unfair Online Ticket Sales Practices: directs the committee to evaluate the operations of online ticket platforms, recommend ways to improve consumer price transparency throughout the purchase process, and identify ways to protect Texans from unfair or deceptive practices in the secondary ticket market.

Religious Liberty Select Committee

· Studying the Current State of Religious Liberty: directs a comparison of state and federal protections, including Article I, Section 6 of the Texas Constitution and the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment.

· Educating Texans on Religious Liberty: directs the committee to examine ways to inform Texans of those rights in education, the workplace, government, and healthcare.

State Affairs Committee

· Protecting Minors Online: directs a study of online gaming platforms that advertise to children, whether those platforms carry sufficient age verification and youth protections, and recommendations to keep minors from violent and sexual content and to prohibit communications between minors and adult strangers on gaming platforms.

· Protecting Texas Families: directs a study of inefficiencies in divorce and child custody proceedings, including unpredictable timelines, delays, and repetitive child evaluations.

Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs Committee

· Managing the Pecos River Basin: directs a study of water availability, flow decline, and administrative challenges in the basin; an evaluation of the Red Bluff Water Power Control District and its constituent irrigation districts; a review of state accounting under the Pecos River Compact and the implementation of environmental flow standards; and an assessment of anticipated discharges and beneficial reuse of treated produced water.

What's Next?

Interim hearings this week at the Capitol

Tuesday, July 28

· Senate Finance, 9:00 a.m., on higher education financial transparency and on preventing fraud, waste, and abuse in state agencies. Senate Higher Education, 12:00 p.m., on implementation of SB 37 and HB 127 (89th Legislature) and the public junior college state finance program.

Wednesday, July 29

· Senate Business & Commerce, 9:00 a.m., on Texas electric grid reliability and ERCOT market competitiveness, and on the property rights impacts of 765-kV transmission lines.

· Senate Higher Education, 9:00 a.m., on the funding methodology for the Permanent University Fund and the Texas University Fund.

Thursday, July 30

· House Homeland Security, Public Safety & Veterans’ Affairs, 10:00 a.m., on countering foreign financial influence and illicit networks, foreign adversary transparency enforcement, and protecting critical infrastructure.