Andrew Schneider | Houston Public Media
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Fighting among Texas officials over mask mandates has created muddled messaging, as the highly contagious delta variant is sending people to the hospital in numbers that rival the worst months of the pandemic.
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Experts forecast that lawmakers will probably not finish redrawing the state’s new congressional and state legislative maps until well into the fall – then come the inevitable court challenges.
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The former vice president spoke in Houston before an annual conference of college conservatives organized by the Young America’s Foundation.
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Texas Republicans pushed back forcefully, denying Democratic claims that the state election bill would suppress voting and discriminate against minority voters.
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Harris County, which includes Houston, has more than 4.7 million people. Many of the voting rights innovations installed last year are at risk of being eliminated by the Republican-led legislature.
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In addition to the controversial voting bill, the agenda includes bail reform, restrictions on transgender youth sports participation, and funding for the Legislature itself.
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The Texas House Democratic Caucus has confirmed that Democrats have fled the state in an effort to block Republican voting restrictions from advancing in a special legislative session.
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Gov. Greg Abbott’s move will primarily affect the more than 2,100 full-time employees at the Texas Capitol — not the lawmakers he intended to punish.
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Gov. Greg Abbott said the state will open an online donation portal later this week to fund the wall, but political scientists and his critics question the timing.
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Leading casualties of the regular session included the omnibus elections bill, bail reform, and the George Floyd Act. But Gov. Greg Abbott has promised special sessions that could revive some GOP priorities.
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House Bill 20, also known as the Damon Allen Act, passed the House on a voice vote and appeared to have bipartisan support. It included amendments by a number of Democratic members.
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Senate Bill 912 is one of more than 90 such bills advanced in state legislatures across the country in the wake of last year’s demonstrations against racism and police violence.