|
June 5, 2025 10:52 AM
It's like if you didn't pay your rent or make mortgage payments for 6 years, then wrote a huge check and said "This is the most I've ever given you by far!" Quorum Report Editor Scott Braddock wraps up the legislative session on KSAT News in San Antonio
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright June 05, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 5, 2025 10:36 AM
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright June 05, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 4, 2025 7:38 PM
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright June 04, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 4, 2025 2:57 PM
The
breaking news via Houston Chronicle reporter Taylor Goldenstein:
The
Department of Justice is suing the state of Texas over a longstanding policy
that allows undocumented immigrants to receive in-state college tuition.
Texas
lawmakers considered outlawing the practice in the legislative session that
ended Monday, as they have in previous sessions, but the half a dozen proposals
failed to gain traction. None passed in either chamber.
The
Justice Department argued that the policy violates federal law, which prohibits
undocumented immigrants from being eligible for any benefit on
the basis of state residence for any post-secondary education benefit
unless citizens are also eligible. “The State of Texas has ignored this law for
years,” reads the government’s petition, filed in federal court in Wichita
Falls. “This Court should put that to an end and permanently enjoin enforcement
of certain provisions of the Texas Education Code that expressly and directly
conflict with federal immigration law.”
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright June 04, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 4, 2025 2:48 PM
“I can’t begin to put into writing what my sweet momma meant to me,” wrote Rep. Harris. “I know her unconditional love impacted more lives than we can count. She was the personification of a Proverbs 31 woman.”
The obituary
for Janis
Redding Harris is here. Depending on your browser you may have to right click the link and open in a new tab.
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright June 04, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 3, 2025 5:05 PM
He announced shortly after the commissioners court voted 3-2 on redistricting cementing a Republican majority
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright June 03, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 2, 2025 4:42 PM
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright June 02, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 2, 2025 2:29 PM
Judicial pay and lawmaker pensions will apparently still be linked but Texas Ethics Commission will make a recommendation
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright June 02, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 2, 2025 1:44 PM
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright June 02, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 2, 2025 1:43 PM
Statesman
Reporter Bayliss Wagner with
the update:
The U.S.
Supreme Court has declined to hear a conservative activist’s lawsuit
challenging the Texas Ethics Commission’s enforcement powers, effectively
ending a decade-long effort to weaken the watchdog agency.
Michael
Quinn Sullivan and Empower Texans, a now-disbanded powerful political advocacy
group largely funded by West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks,
filed the lawsuit in 2014 after the ethics agency fined Sullivan $10,000 for
failing to register as a lobbyist. The commission unanimously found he worked
to influence GOP lawmakers' votes on behalf of Empower Texans, a position for
which he was paid around $130,000 annually.
An El Paso
appeals court in 2022 upheld the agency’s ability to enforce election laws, and
the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court declined to take up the case on appeal.
Sullivan then made a Hail Mary request to the nation’s highest court.
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright June 02, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 2, 2025 11:39 AM
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright June 02, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 2, 2025 10:00 AM
KVUE TV anchor Ashley Goudeau and Quorum Report Editor Scott Braddock discuss the final days of the legislative session
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright June 02, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 2, 2025 9:46 AM
Texas Education Agency also removed and replaced four appointed members of the Board of Managers
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright June 02, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 1, 2025 7:43 PM
A few
weeks ago, with nearly everyone in the Texas Capitol community
sounding pretty miserable, a friend asked when the Loco
and Dissent Calendar would be released. I went back and looked at the Quorum
Report archives to see the previous release dates. I’m happy to report
that we are on track. But when that friend asked about the Calendar, I started
thinking about whether the audience even has the stomach for it this year. It’s
been rough, fer sure. But it doesn’t matter if y’all do, does it? In a space
like this, ceremony and traditions are important.
The Loco
and Dissent Calendar is one of those traditions.
Here’s the
short history of it for those who don’t know. Decades ago, before the advent of
the internet, hard copies of the satirical calendar would show up on the desks
of lawmakers as if it were one of the real Texas House calendars.
Members would read it and quickly figure out it was something else: An often
funny and sometimes biting look at what had transpired over the prior 5 months.
Then in 1998, when Mr. Kronberg pioneered online journalism in Texas, the anonymous
writers of the calendar asked if Quorum Report would distribute the calendar
electronically. Back in those days, we would post a news item to QR and then
call people to ask if they could see it. Some of you can remember back that
far.
No matter
how many times I say it, some of you will never believe that Mr. Kronberg and I
have nothing to do with the production of the Loco and Dissent Calendar. We
take no ownership of the content – no matter how funny, unfunny, or downright
offensive it may be. So, here is our usual disclaimer:
We have
nothing to do with the production of the calendar. It is often racy, profane,
and we do not even bother to read it before posting. The contents belong to the
writers, an anonymous group – we swear we do not even know who they are – and
the Quorum Report is solely the distribution vehicle. Our agreement with the anonymous
writers has always been that QR will send it out for the capitol community, and
it will not be password protected so that all can laugh, be offended, or
whatever.
Here is
the 2025 Loco
and Dissent Calendar.
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright June 01, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 1, 2025 7:39 PM
The head of the Texas Pastor Council and Houston Area Pastor Council died of a heart attack, per Sen. Bettencourt
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright June 01, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 1, 2025 6:31 PM
Chairman Ken King says the deal is 15 licenses and satellite locations. Chronic pain without prior opioid use, traumatic brain injuries, and Crohn's Disease are included. The Texas House signed off on the CCR on a vote of 138 to 1
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright June 01, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 1, 2025 3:36 PM
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright June 01, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 1, 2025 3:30 PM
Chairman Leach agrees to go to conference with the Senate on this
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright June 01, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 1, 2025 1:03 AM
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright June 01, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
May 31, 2025 3:40 PM
Check out
his memo to
lawmakers here.
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright May 31, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
May 31, 2025 3:01 PM
The conference committee report on HB 5246 is eligible for consideration later today
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright May 31, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
May 31, 2025 2:58 PM
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright May 31, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
May 31, 2025 12:24 PM
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright May 31, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
May 31, 2025 11:24 AM
"To be clear, the Senate has rejected the House’s judicial pay raise bill because, in our version, we did not give legislators an automatic pension increase,” Leach said. “That was the House’s position, is the House’s position and will remain the House’s position.”
After last
night's procedural gymnastics in the Texas Senate, House
Judiciary Chairman Jeff Leach and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick
are at an impasse on raising pay for judges across the state.
In
something of a novel approach, Patrick's Senate didn't request a conference
with the House after Chair Leach delinked judicial pay and lawmakers' pensions
in a Senate bill. Instead, the Senate moved to concur on
all House amendments to the bill except the decoupling and sent the House a
resolution asking lawmakers in the lower chamber to just retreat from that
language.
It's
weird. I know.
On social
media, Lt. Gov. Patrick argued that if judges don't get a pay increase now,
it's the House's fault.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright May 31, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
May 30, 2025 10:58 PM
"Historic." An alternative to the conference committee process? The Senate tries to essentially create a line-item veto for the Lt. Gov., instead of a conference committee, when senators don’t agree with House changes to a Senate Bill
In a moment that even seasoned Capitol Veterans found confusing, the Texas Senate led by Lt. Gov. Dan
Patrick decided that the Texas House
changes to a Senate bill about judicial pay should not go to a conference
committee and instead came up with what looks like a new way handle that kind of
disagreement between the two chambers.
SB 293 by Chair Joan Huffman was
going to follow the tradition of linking judicial pay increases to increases in
pensions for lawmakers, but the House sought to delink those things and instead
solely increase judicial pay. Senators don’t agree with that. As one said, “we
sacrifice a lot to be here serving” and argued that the two things should still
be linked.
But the way
it played out even confused one GOP legislator, Sen. Charles Schwertner,
who asked “what happens next” after the Senate’s move tonight.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright May 30, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
May 30, 2025 9:41 PM
It sounds like Chairman Leach and Chair Huffman had an agreement to increase judicial pay without simultaneously increasing lawmaker pensions, but the Senate reneged and just killed that proposal. The House could still now agree to the judicial pay increase if it's linked to increasing pensions for lawmakers
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright May 30, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
May 30, 2025 7:46 PM
Lt. Gov. Patrick is tweeting out Trump's statement tonight
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright May 30, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
May 30, 2025 4:20 PM
Veterans met with Abbott's legislative director Robert Howden and said they asked for a meeting with Abbott personally and want him to veto SB3
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright May 30, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
May 30, 2025 3:43 PM
The motion
in writing from the Chair of the Loco and Dissent Committee can be downloaded
here.
|
|
Top of Page
Copyright May 30, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
