The program would give low income families an extra $120 per child for summer lunches, but federal debate about food benefits could endanger the program.

Texas passed sweeping changes to cannabis policy, including expanding the medical marijuana program and banning hemp products, while also boosting psychedelics research.

At the same time, some Democrats acknowledged the Lubbock Republican let them leave their mark on some of the GOP bills they disagreed with.

A bill headed for Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk may not go into effect until 2027. Election administrators say the changes could create staffing challenges.

The 33 potential voting violations are a tiny fraction of the roughly 11 million who cast ballots in the November 2024 election.

Jones, a Democrat elected to the Texas House in 2022 and previously served on the Houston City Council, joins a slate of candidates running to fill the solidly blue seat.

Far from the Capitol, students at Texas Tech spend time examining the quality of beef for meat judging competitions.

Lawmakers sought to close gaps in education and support funding for agriculture, disaster preparedness and health care this year.

Buoyed by the Trump administration's willingness to place restrictions on food assistance programs, Texas moves to limit junk food.

Texas is slated to spend $51 billion on property tax cuts over the next two years. Some worry that’s unsustainable.

A package of bills aims to better prepare the state to prevent and fight wildfires.

Abbott faces pressure from both sides of the aisle. The prohibition was a priority for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, but some hemp farmers and veterans want it killed.

House and Senate members agreed that judges needed a pay raise. But they spent the final hours of the legislative session debating whether Texas lawmakers should also benefit from the boost.

The Legislature wrapped up without the same drama that defined the end of the last two sessions, with state GOP leaders checking off nearly everything on their to-do lists.

Texas lawmakers bypassed bills that would have restricted “forever chemicals” in sewage sludge, studied health impacts and banned some uses of PFAS-laced firefighting foams.

Texas is poised to lead the country in an initiative to inform denizens of what’s in their food. Food industry experts say it’s going too far.

State legislators passed an array of bills this year aimed at reining in the state’s high home prices and rents.

The state standardized test has long been criticized for taking instructional time away from teachers and putting unnecessary pressure on students.

Local organizations strongly opposed the measure, hosting phone banking events to urge lawmakers to vote against the bill.

A bill to increase judicial salaries from $140,000 to $175,000 a year stalled amid a disagreement over lawmakers’ own retirement benefits.

Tensions flared and the debate turned personal as Republicans said their bill empowered parents and denied predictions that the ban will endanger children.

A boost in public school spending, school vouchers, and money for water systems are other highlights of the state budget, which was bolstered by a $24 billion surplus.

The Legislature has approved a conference committee report that lists sales to certain people from China, North Korea, Russia and Iran as threats to national security.

Texas property owners can use nearly as much water under their land as they want. That’s unlikely to change even as the state approaches a crisis.

House Bill 3006 would have required the installation of climate control in state prison by 2032.

Reallocated funding for the program that will go to providers will benefit nearly 95,000 children on a waitlist for scholarships.

Critics say House Bill 229, which has gone to the governor, discriminates against trans people, but the full effect remains to be seen.

House Bill 186, approved by the lower chamber in May, never received a vote in the Senate.

House Bill 6, which now heads to the governor, targets the increase in violence that has plagued schools since the pandemic.

Supporters said the proposal, which sought to amend the state constitution, would improve safety. Critics said it would violate due process and unfairly target minority groups.

The harassment allegedly took place while the two were on leave from the agency working on Paxton’s impeachment defense.

At least four companies say they are prepared to treat the water well enough to be released into rivers in West Texas. Environmental groups say the state is moving too fast.

Lawmakers filed dozens of bills that would increase transparency around spending in elections and strengthen penalties for campaign and lobbying violations. None are poised to pass.

Many trans Texans have changed the sex listed on their birth certificate, driver’s licenses and other documents. They say their identities will be invalidated under bill headed to governor's desk.

House Bill 126, which allows student athletes to receive a slice of the billions Texas colleges generate in revenue from their teams, now awaits the governor’s signature.

Senate Bill 2858 would have expanded a sweeping state law intended to erode the authority of the state’s major urban areas.

The proposal is largely in response to massive pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year. Critics say it would walk back free speech protections that conservatives advocated for in previous legislative sessions.

House Bill 46, which awaits Gov. Greg Abbott’s approval, would include more patients with chronic pain and allow for prescribed vaporized and aerosol products, such as vapes.

Senate Bill 1362 would prevent officials from taking someone’s firearms if they haven’t been charged with a crime or aren’t subject to a protective order under the Texas Family Code.

Senate Bill 1150, which is on its way to Gov. Greg Abbott, is a rare example of the Texas Legislature regulating the state’s oil and gas industry.

Senate Bill 15, a top priority of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, is part of a broad push by lawmakers to put a dent in the state’s high home prices.

The deal allocates $1 billion a year to water projects for 20 years, which some groups estimate is a fraction of what Texas needs to save its water supply.

The bill would have withheld some tax dollars from cities that did not comply with state law.

The House made changes to the proposal that leave open ways for victims to be compensated beyond medical bills.

Much of the debate focused on the tense relationship between cities and the Texas Legislature. The bill is head to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.

Senate Bill 6, which now heads to the governor’s desk, gives the state’s electricity managers the ability to shut power to large consumers during emergencies.

Democrats declined to support Senate Joint Resolution 87, which sprinted through the Senate and needed 100 votes to clear the lower chamber.

While state leaders say growers can still produce industrial hemp, farmers say they will quit growing the plant altogether under a total THC ban.

The governor has not addressed whether he supports the ban, as hemp industry leaders have urged him to veto Senate Bill 3.

SB 3070, which awaits Gov. Greg Abbott’s signature, would move the lottery game to Texas’ Department of Licensing and Regulation and includes new restrictions on ticket purchases.

Instead of waiting for the state to send them one, parents would be able to print out vaccine exemption forms at home if they want to skip school-required shots. Critics believe the bill would increase infections.

A top priority of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the legislation would make it easier to construct homes on smaller lots. A House Democrat briefly killed the bill.

A 2024 war among Republicans tilted the House to the right. Now more closely aligned with the Senate, Speaker Dustin Burrows has accelerated action on bail, school vouchers and social issues.

Senate Bill 12’s supporters say DEI programs use class time and public funds to promote political agendas.

Both houses have approved Senate Bill 10 even though a similar Louisiana law was deemed unconstitutional. Supporters say Christianity is core to U.S. history.

The latest version of the proposal eliminates language that would have required university curricula not to advocate that “any race, sex, ethnicity or religious belief is inherently superior to another.”

The chamber jettisoned a provision tenants’ advocates warned would make it easier for Texas landlords to evict renters.

The ban aims to remove products — made legal through a 2019 loophole — that provide a similar high to marijuana and are easily accessible to the general public.

As the state seeks to put guardrails around the fast-growing technology, some critics say the bill doesn’t go far enough to protect citizens while industry worries about stifling innovation.

The chambers differ on how much power districts should have to push back in courts over their accountability ratings. They risk keeping STAAR by default if they don’t reach an agreement.

The legislation includes new pots of money for teacher raises and other school costs like insurance and transportation. It now heads to the House, where leaders say it will pass.

The Texas Senate had previously proposed more severe consequences in the bill.

The bill, which is poised to become law, creates up to a $250,000 fine for medical professionals who change a patients’ listed sex outside of certain exemptions.

Some hemp retailers are looking at other states, while others say they are ready to take Texas to court over a THC ban.

Federal action would be needed to make the change legal. Lawmakers at both the state and federal levels have debated the question for decades.

Many of the patients are being treated in Lubbock, a medical hub for the South Plains where the outbreak originated.

The House approved the ban after previously considering proposals to preserve the industry by tightening regulations.

The bill won bipartisan support despite efforts from multiple Democrats that would have also required students to learn about fascism and Nazism.

Gov. Greg Abbott and other leaders have called for a major investment to save the state’s water supply. How to spend the money has caused friction at the Capitol.

The legislation would give ERCOT the ability to turn off power to major consumers in an emergency.

The bill does not expand abortion access, but further explains when a doctor can intervene to save a pregnant patient’s life.

Adults who are unsure whether they’re vaccinated can get additional shots, health experts say.

Approval of the monument comes as the lower chamber prepares to debate the “Life of the Mother Act” bill later this week.

The bill is part of a suite of GOP proposals aimed at curbing the state’s high housing costs — chiefly by allowing more homes to be built.

Providing bigger tax breaks to homeowners is a key component of a deal brokered by Republicans in the Texas Legislature to lower tax bills for Texans.

As the field takes shape for the 2026 campaign, the Republican incumbent, Dan Patrick, starts with a large financial advantage.

Matthew Johnson, who testified he did not intend to kill the elderly clerk, received the death penalty in 2013. The execution is Texas’ fourth and may be the last for 2025.

The House passage of the measure asking voters to amend the state Constitution to tighten the state’s bail laws hands a major policy win to Gov. Greg Abbott.

The Texas Legislature has already passed a bill requiring age verification to download apps and is seriously considering another to ban children from social media.

As the state grapples with a threatened water supply, industry and lawmakers have invested millions in research to clean the toxic backwash for use in for agriculture.

The DAs say in two lawsuits that a new rule requiring counties to hand over almost all documents the attorney general’s office requests violates state and federal law.

Lawyers representing foster children asked the high court to reinstate a contempt order against the state, and the judge who issued it.

Some measures that made it through before midnight dealt with jail bonds, an unconstitutional ban on gay sex, and the liability of vaccine manufacturers.

House Bill 3006 would require the installation of climate control in state prison facilities by 2032.

Senate Bill 3070 would allow the Texas Lottery’s games to continue under a new department, abolish the agency and create restrictions on ticket purchases.

Texas’ governor joins other Republican governors making similar requests to ban purchases of candy and soda through the SNAP program.

Leaders hope to treat groundwater and capture more rain as the water from one of the nation’s most iconic rivers becomes less reliable.

Twelve House Republicans joined Democrats to approve repealing the ban, which has been unenforced since 2003. It is the first time the bill has made it to the House floor since it was first proposed decades ago.

Last year, lawmakers waded into a dramatic feud over the case of death row inmate Robert Roberson, seen as the embodiment of the failures of Texas’ junk science law.

The bill would cap out-of-state political donations to a candidate or lawmaker to $5,000 for a statewide election, $2,500 for a district office and $1,000 for a county office.

House Bill 2988 was centered on who pays the legal fees of those who successfully defend themselves against libel or defamation lawsuits.

In an appeal filed this week, Maria Rojas’ attorneys accused Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office of a careless investigation.

The Texas House must approve changes to the proposal that were brokered by party leaders. It’s part of a package of bills to bring down property taxes statewide.

A raft of social conservative priorities backed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick hang in the balance, including efforts to infuse more religion into public schools.

Supporters say the bill would protect farmland in Texas. Opponents say limiting PFAS chemicals in biosolids will force water utilities to look at other disposal methods, which will lead to higher utility bills.

It is unclear whether the House bill could come back as an amendment to another measure before the legislative session ends June 2.

Before the House takes a final vote on the bill, it could face a proposal that would allow adults and minors to marry if their age gap is three years or less.

A key Senate critic threw a lifeline to the Texas Lottery when he proposed moving its oversight to a new agency instead of eliminating it entirely.

Amending the Texas Constitution to crack down on the state’s bail practices has been an elusive priority of Gov. Greg Abbott’s for three consecutive sessions.

House Bill 46 would increase the number of health conditions eligible and would offer smokeable products under the state’s medical marijuana program.