Archives

Tensions Mount as Lawmakers File Bills for Special Session—With less than a week until the special session of the 85th Texas Legislature gavels in, lawmakers are now allowed to file bills for consideration. Although Governor Abbott declared his list of twenty items that he hopes will be accomplished by the end of the 30 day session, lawmakers are allowed to …

Read More

Legislative Update—Governor Abbott recently announced that he had vetoed 50 pieces of legislation that passed the Senate and the House. He also cut $120 million from the budget through line item vetoes. Among the programs nixed in the budget was $2.5 million for the Texas Soil and Water Conservation Board to conduct water supply enhancement. According to a TSWCB spokesperson, …

Read More

Governor Abbott Calls for Special Legislative Session—On Tuesday afternoon, Governor Abbott declared that he would be exercising his constitutional power to call state lawmakers back into Austin to address business unfinished during the 140 days of the recently concluded 85th Regular Session. After considerable speculation as to what subjects the Governor would direct lawmakers to address, he rolled out a …

Read More

Clock Ticking in Austin for Priority Legislation—With just ten days until the Texas Legislature reaches the conclusion of its 85th regular session, questions still remain about the prognosis of major initiatives. At the beginning of the session in January, Governor Greg Abbott laid out four priorities: Reform Child Protective Services to be more responsive and thorough in protecting foster children …

Read More

Legislative Update— Last Monday night, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Water & Rural Affairs heard public testimony on SB 1392, a bill authored by committee chairman Charles Perry (R-Lubbock). SB 1392 is the end result of the previous legislature’s interim charge for the committee to research existing groundwater management policies in the face of a diminishing water supply. From a …

Read More

Texas House Hears Pair of Anti-Pesticide Bills—This week, committees in the Texas House of Representatives heard two bills that addressed the role of the state legislature in the regulation of pesticides. On Tuesday evening, the House committee on Public Health heard HB 3451, a bill by freshman Representative Lynn Stucky. The next day, the House committee on Agriculture & Livestock …

Read More

TERP Explained—This Texas legislative session, a bill was filed in the Senate that challenges the role of ethanol in state-owned vehicles. The bill seeks to achieve this by modifying the Texas Emissions Reduction Program, known as TERP. As TGSA pushes back on this attempt to hinder the state’s ethanol industry, we thought it would be valuable to explain what TERP …

Read More

This Week in the Legislature—This week, the House Committee on Natural Resources met for the first time to discuss committee rules and hear general testimony from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and the Texas Water Development Board. The rest of this week’s hearings in the House were primarily budget-related in nature. The Senate Committee on Natural Resources and …

Read More

TGSA Annual Meeting Brings Industry Together— More than 60 representatives of the sorghum industry met in Austin the second week of February for a joint annual meeting of TGSA and Texas Seed Trade Association (TSTA). The 85th Legislative Session provided an ideal backdrop for producers and industry representatives to converge in Austin. The meeting began with keynote speaker, Representative Larry Gonzales …

Read More

TGSA Participates in DC Fly-In—This week, sorghum producers from across the country attended the National Sorghum Producers annual fly-in to Washington D.C. TGSA staff Patrick Wade was joined by Texas Sorghum members Brittan Gruhlkey, Kody Carson, Danny Beyer, and Jason Franz, as well as Texans participating in NSP’s Leadership Sorghum program. Texas sorghum producers met with the Texas’s congressional delegation …

Read More