Texas Senate passes multiple legislative priority bills

The Texas Senate passed multiple bills identified as legislative priorities by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

In addition to passing a bill to create Texas’ first Education Savings Account program, the Texas Senate unanimously passed a bill Wednesday to increase school safety funding.

State Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, filed SB 260, which permanently increases state funding for public school safety initiatives by an additional $500 million over the next biennium. This is in addition to an existing $366 million allocated for ongoing support for public schools, in addition to $1.1 billion allocated for grants from the last legislative session. The bill would double the annual funding allotment for each campus to $30,000 and nearly triple the per-student funding to $28 each year.

The Texas Senate also unanimously passed Texas’ own Make Texas Healthy Again bill filed by state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, on Wednesday. It would create additional regulations and expand bureaucracy, including additional physical education requirements for public school students, requiring medical schools to teach nutrition curriculum, requiring physicians to take nutrition continuing education classes, creating a Texas Nutrition Advisory Committee to examine the scientific link between ultra processed foods and chronic disease, mandating that warning labels be placed on foods that contain "artificial color, additives, or certain banned chemicals,” among other provisions, The Center Square reported.

The Texas Senate also unanimously passed SB 20, Stopping Artificial Intelligence (AI) Generated Child Pornography, filed by Sen. Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton, on Wednesday. It would create a new state felony offense for possessing or promoting obscene visual material that appears to depict a child younger than 18 years old using AI or other computer software. It applies to depicting children through cartoons, animation, or other AI generated material.

The Senate also passed with bipartisan support SB 5 and Senate Joint Resolution 3, a constitutional amendment, to establish the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (DPRIT). Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland, filed the companion legislation in the House. If the House passes them and Gov. Greg Abbott signs SB 5 into law, voters must approve the constitutional amendment in November.

The bill establishes the DPRIT to accelerate research into Dementia and related disorders at a constitutionally mandated cost to taxpayers of $3 billion over the next 10 years. SJR 3 limits appropriations out of the general revenue fund to no more than $300 million per fiscal year.

The Texas Senate also passed SB 21 to establish the Texas Bitcoin Reserve, filed by Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown. The Texas Comptroller’s Office would manage the cryptocurrency reserve with a market capitalization of at least $500 billion. It authorizes the legislature to appropriate taxpayer money into the fund. It also creates a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Advisory Committee to provide guidance and recommendations for administering it as well as reporting requirements, The Center Square reported.

The Senate also passed a bail reform package with bipartisan support in response to judges releasing violent repeat offenders onto the streets, including in capital murder cases, The Center Square reported.

Many of the bills were filed as an expression of support of Trump administration policies, including establishing a national cryptocurrency reserve, “Making America Healthy Again,” parental rights and school choice programs, and tough on crime executive orders, including reinstating capital punishment at the federal level for violent offenders, including cop killers and illegal foreign nationals who commit violent crimes against Americans.

At the beginning of the legislative session, Patrick identified 25 legislative priorities for the upper chamber to pass among thousands of bills filed this legislative session. Patrick said he expects to increase the number of priority bills later in the session to 40.