Last week Governor Abbott gave his State of the State in San Marcos at Noveon Magnetics, which was a change from the traditional joint session with the Texas House and Senate. He laid out his seven emergency items: cutting property taxes, ending COVID restrictions forever, education freedom for all Texans, school safety, ending "revolving door" bail, securing the border, and fighting The Fentanyl Crisis  According to the Texas Constitution, the House and Senate can't pass legislation during the first 60 days of a regular session. By declaring these items as an emergency these items can be heard before the 60-day deadline. The text of his speech can be found here.

House Appropriations has named their subcommittee. They have been meeting and hearing testimony from various agencies. The subcommittee on Article III, the group that oversees the education portion of the budget, will hear from TEA on Friday. If you would like to tune in to listen, the broadcast can be found here. 

Subcommittee Membership: 

House Committees are staffing up and should start holding hearings beginning next week. 

Senate Education has not met and does not have a scheduled hearing. 

Both the House and Senate are adjourned until Tuesday, February 28th.