In the News

Texas Democrats: Gov. Abbott should serve Texans, not Trump, and bring our troops home

| Posted in In the News

Governor Greg Abbott should keep the Texas National Guard where it belongs — in Texas. On October 6, Governor Abbott took 200 Texas guardsmen from their families and jobs and sent them to Chicago, Illinois. In doing so, the governor facilitated a power grab by President Donald Trump. Abbott’s peers, the governors of Oregon and Illinois, have both objected to the National Guard…

Kristi Noem made a TSA video blaming Democrats for the shutdown. Are Houston airports showing it?

| Posted in In the News

As several U.S. airports refuse to show a video of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blaming Democrats for the government shutdown, Houston airport officials have not yet said whether they’ll play the partisan message at their security checkpoints. The video of Noem criticizing the Democratic Party has sparked pushback from Democratic leaders about whether her use…

Harris County Wants $7 Billion Solar Program Restored

| Posted in In the News

Since Donald Trump took office in January, Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee has sued the federal government four times, saying Tuesday that it’s the only way to get the attention of an administration that has repeatedly, illegally, broken promises to low-income Texans.  Menefee announced this week that he filed the latest…

Harris County sues Trump EPA to restore $400M in Texas solar energy funding

| Posted in In the News

Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee filed a lawsuit Monday contesting the Trump administration’s cancellation of more than $400 million in solar energy grants earmarked for Texas-based organizations. The federal funding, part of a $7 billion Biden-era program known as Solar for All, was meant to help lower-income families access solar panels and battery storage systems. It was…

What Texas and Houston lawmakers said about Trump’s plan to send Texas troops to cities like Chicago

| Posted in In the News

The Trump administration is pushing ahead with a plan to deploy hundreds of Texas National Guard soldiers to Democratic-led parts of the country as it seeks to ramp up its criminal justice crackdown. A Trump-appointed federal judge has temporarily blocked a deployment to Oregon, which was meant to respond to protests at Immigration and Customs Enforcement buildings, while a lawsuit…

Why 4 million Texans are caught in the middle of the government shutdown

| Posted in In the News

Four million Texans now take advantage of tax credits that help offset the cost of health insurance, making it one of the fastest growing states for enrollment through the Affordable Care Act. That puts them at the center of the fight over federal spending that led to a government shutdown earlier this week, with Democrats insisting that any deal must include an extension of the tax…

Texans could lose flood insurance if Congress doesn't pass a spending deal. Here's what to know

| Posted in In the News

As Congress negotiates a short-term deal to keep the government funded and avoid a shutdown on Oct. 1, homeowners might not be thinking about their flood insurance.  But most flood insurance policies in Texas are written by the federal government. If Congress doesn’t act to reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program by Sept. 30, it will lapse, leaving thousands of Texans…

Lawmakers relaunch bipartisan Flood Resilience Caucus

| Posted in In the News

A bipartisan group of House members have relaunched the Flood Resilience Caucus to bolster preparedness and improve coordination. Lawmakers said the relaunch was in response to the deadly Texas floods in July and will focus on strengthening critical infrastructure and creating long-term policy solutions to protect coastal communities…

FEMA remains on the chopping block, even after the deadly Texas Hill Country floods

| Posted in In the News

In June, President Donald Trump told a gathering at the Oval Office that he wanted to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and hand its responsibilities to the states — possibly as early as this December, once the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season ends. That was just before FEMA played a critical role in the response to the Texas Hill Country floods, which cost more than…

Texas Democrats ramp up criticism of new Texas congressional map after Senate sends it to governor

| Posted in In the News

Democrats took to social media to to criticize the state's new congressional map after it passed the Texas Senate early Saturday morning, setting the path for Republicans to gain up to five additional seats in the U.S. House. Shortly before 1 a.m., the upper chamber voted 18-11 along party lines to pass the measure and send the redistricting map to the Gov. Greg Abbott. An attempt to…