Staff Writers
The Texas Legislature convenes for its 89th regular session at noon today, kicking off 140 days of wrangling over the business of the state.
Lawmakers will debate the future of public education, find ways to spend nearly $200 billion in tax money and wrestle over divisive issues like border security and abortion.
With Republicans holding strong majorities in both the House and Senate, the state’s 150 representatives and 31 senators will consider thousands of proposals, listen to hundreds of hours of public testimony and eventually pass close to 1,000 new laws that will go into effect over the following year.
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Some of the biggest fireworks of opening day will involve the choice of speaker to lead the Texas House.
Reps. David Cook, R-Mansfield, Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, Ana Maria Ramos, D-Dallas, are vying for the gavel. The winner will be a Republican, but the GOP caucus has yet to settle on a consensus candidate.
Cook won a caucus vote in December with support from a majority of Republicans, but Burrows quickly announced that a coalition of Republicans and Democrats gave him the 76 votes needed to be selected speaker.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick – who presides over the Senate and clashed repeatedly with the departing speaker, Dade Phelan – criticized Burrows’ reliance on Democrats, saying it made him a “counterfeit speaker.”
The vote for speaker will take place shortly after House members take the oath of office.
Aarón is an Austin native who previously covered local government for The Kansas City Star and high school sports for the Knoxville News Sentinel. He is a University of Texas graduate, and Spanish is his first language.
Karen Brooks Harper has covered Texas politics in and out of Austin for nearly 30 years. She's also covered the cartel wars along the TX-MX border, Congress in Mexico City, and 6 hurricanes, among other stories. Raised on blues and great food in the MS Delta, she lives in ATX with her family, her guitar, and her boxing gloves. In that order.
Philip Jankowski has covered government, politics and criminal justice in Texas for 17 years. He previously worked for the Austin American-Statesman, the Killeen Daily Herald and the Taylor Press. Philip is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.
Nolan covers Texas politics. Before relocating to Austin in June 2024, he spent nearly a decade in Washington, D.C., reporting on national politics, including the White House, Congress and presidential campaigns. He is a graduate of Florida A&M University.
