In 2001, Texas Republicans saw expanding college access for certain undocumented students as a way to build an educated workforce. Now, some GOP lawmakers feel only U.S. citizens should receive those benefits.

At the same time, some Democrats acknowledged the Lubbock Republican let them leave their mark on some of the GOP bills they disagreed with.

Lawmakers tried to tackle the problem of truancy and chronic absenteeism in Texas during the last legislative session, but many proposed laws failed to pass. However, one bill is now on Governor Greg Abbott’s desk waiting to be signed.

The quick end to a Texas law that granted in-state public university tuition prices to students who lack legal resident status stunned immigrant advocates and state Democrats, who call it a cruel punishment for hardworking students that will ultimately hurt the state’s economy.

The spending package will give schools more money for staff pay raises, operational expenses, special education and more.

Buoyed by the Trump administration's willingness to place restrictions on food assistance programs, Texas moves to limit junk food.

Texas is slated to spend $51 billion on property tax cuts over the next two years. Some worry that’s unsustainable.

Texas lawmakers have approved banning gummies, drinks and vapes infused with THC, the compound that gives marijuana its psychoactive properties.

Governor Greg Abbott is expected to sign a bail reform package in Houston on Tuesday.

Abbott faces pressure from both sides of the aisle. The prohibition was a priority for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, but some hemp farmers and veterans want it killed.

University boards appointed by the Texas governor soon could have new powers to control the curriculum required of students and eliminate degree programs.

The Legislature wrapped up without the same drama that defined the end of the last two sessions, with state GOP leaders checking off nearly everything on their to-do lists.

A set of property tax cut bills in Texas Legislature, Senate Bill 4 and Senate Bill 23, are now headed to Governor Greg Abbott’s desk for signature.

State legislators passed an array of bills this year aimed at reining in the state’s high home prices and rents.

Research shows cellphones interfere with students' ability to focus in class. Texas would join at least nine other states that ban students from using their phones during the school day.

A new bill aimed at curbing the rise in violent and disruptive incidents in Texas schools is now awaiting Governor Greg Abbott’s signature—but some parents and educators say the proposed legislation falls short of solving the deeper issues at play.

Senate Bill 3, a controversial measure that would ban all THC products in Texas, has officially passed both chambers of the Texas Legislature. The bill is now on Governor Greg Abbott’s desk, where he will make the final decision on whether it becomes law.

Gov. Greg Abbott has already said he intends to sign the bill, which will give schools funding for salary increases, special education, teacher preparation and operational costs.

A push in Texas to ban children under 18 years old from social media platforms is fading at the state Capitol.

House Bill 186, approved by the lower chamber in May, never received a vote in the Senate.

House Bill 6, which now heads to the governor, targets the increase in violence that has plagued schools since the pandemic.

Supporters said the proposal, which sought to amend the state constitution, would improve safety. Critics said it would violate due process and unfairly target minority groups.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the App Store Accountability Act yesterday, mandating stricter controls on mobile app marketplaces to protect minors from online predators and safeguard their personal data.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott took to social media to comment on the death of a kayaker who was killed on Lake Grapevine by a jet ski.

Lawmakers filed dozens of bills that would increase transparency around spending in elections and strengthen penalties for campaign and lobbying violations. None are poised to pass.

House Bill 46, which awaits Gov. Greg Abbott’s approval, would include more patients with chronic pain and allow for prescribed vaporized and aerosol products, such as vapes.

Senate Bill 1150, which is on its way to Gov. Greg Abbott, is a rare example of the Texas Legislature regulating the state’s oil and gas industry.

In this week’s episode, Matthew and Eleanor talk with politics reporter Jasper Scherer about education funding, a THC ban and the success of conservative priorities this year.

Texas has been the center of the nation's largest measles outbreak in decades.

Senate Bill 6, which now heads to the governor’s desk, gives the state’s electricity managers the ability to shut power to large consumers during emergencies.

Monday morning, the Texas House of Representatives unanimously passed SB 835, known as “Trey’s Law.”

Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 2000, known as Audrii’s Law, which mandates sex offender registration for child grooming offenses in Texas.

The governor has not addressed whether he supports the ban, as hemp industry leaders have urged him to veto Senate Bill 3.

Instead of waiting for the state to send them one, parents would be able to print out vaccine exemption forms at home if they want to skip school-required shots. Critics believe the bill would increase infections.

A 2024 war among Republicans tilted the House to the right. Now more closely aligned with the Senate, Speaker Dustin Burrows has accelerated action on bail, school vouchers and social issues.

A push to put the Ten Commandments on display in all Texas public school classrooms is closer to reaching Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's desk.

The latest version of the proposal eliminates language that would have required university curricula not to advocate that “any race, sex, ethnicity or religious belief is inherently superior to another.”

The state constitution’s legislative calendar — not a vote threshold — makes it hard to overrule the governor. Legislators are crafting an amendment that would make more overrides possible.

The chamber jettisoned a provision tenants’ advocates warned would make it easier for Texas landlords to evict renters.

The ban aims to remove products — made legal through a 2019 loophole — that provide a similar high to marijuana and are easily accessible to the general public.

Some hemp retailers are looking at other states, while others say they are ready to take Texas to court over a THC ban.

A House vote showed broad support for the measure that would let districts set aside time for prayer or religious study.

The bill won bipartisan support despite efforts from multiple Democrats that would have also required students to learn about fascism and Nazism.

The U.S. House approved the budget reconciliation bill, which also includes preservation of 2017 tax cuts and changes to Medicaid and SNAP.

Gov. Greg Abbott and other leaders have called for a major investment to save the state’s water supply. How to spend the money has caused friction at the Capitol.

Texas lawmakers have advanced a bill to clarify medical exceptions under one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the U.S. The approval in the Texas House on Wednesday puts the GOP-backed proposal on the brink of reaching Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.

Texas prosecutors have dropped charges against a prominent conservative activist in Houston related to allegations he was part of what authorities have called a baseless voter fraud conspiracy theory.

Approval of the monument comes as the lower chamber prepares to debate the “Life of the Mother Act” bill later this week.

The agency responsible for immigration enforcement has aggressively revived and expanded a decades-old program that delegates immigration enforcement powers to state and local law enforcement agencies.

The bill is part of a suite of GOP proposals aimed at curbing the state’s high housing costs — chiefly by allowing more homes to be built.

Providing bigger tax breaks to homeowners is a key component of a deal brokered by Republicans in the Texas Legislature to lower tax bills for Texans.

Get up to date on the status of the session’s major bills, including some on their way to the governor’s desk.

Texas lawmakers have passed a plan carried by Uvalde’s former mayor to fix police failures laid bare in the hesitant law enforcement response to the Robb Elementary School shooting in 2022.

The House passage of the measure asking voters to amend the state Constitution to tighten the state’s bail laws hands a major policy win to Gov. Greg Abbott.

State efforts to stamp out diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are accelerating during Donald Trump's second term.

Texas’ governor joins other Republican governors making similar requests to ban purchases of candy and soda through the SNAP program.

The Texas House must approve changes to the proposal that were brokered by party leaders. It’s part of a package of bills to bring down property taxes statewide.

A raft of social conservative priorities backed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick hang in the balance, including efforts to infuse more religion into public schools.

It is unclear whether the House bill could come back as an amendment to another measure before the legislative session ends June 2.

Amending the Texas Constitution to crack down on the state’s bail practices has been an elusive priority of Gov. Greg Abbott’s for three consecutive sessions.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas says the U.S. Department of Justice has opened a federal civil rights investigation into a Muslim-centered planned community around one of the state’s largest mosques near Dallas.

Texas Republicans are pushing the federal government to pay the state’s costs of Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg’s Abbott’s border security initiative.

Texas lawmakers have unanimously voted to send H.B. 2000 - better known as Audrii’s Law - to Governor Greg Abbott’s desk to be signed into law.

The money will help pay for a permanent home for the school on UT-Austin's campus. Conservative donors and lawmakers, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, helped create the school in 2023.

While Gov. Greg Abbott steps up his push for stricter bail rules, critics seek a balance between the rights of the accused and the goal of keeping dangerous defendants behind bars.

Opponents fear that fentanyl test strips will increase the usage of the deadly drug.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed a $1 billion voucher program into law.

Governor Greg Abbott has officially signed Senate Bill 2 into law, marking a historic moment for school choice in Texas.

Texas will give participating families about $10,000 to pay for their kids’ private schooling. Other details about the program, set to launch in 2026, are unclear.

Abbott tapped into a powerful national conservative movement and his own campaign war chest to turn turned legislative races into multimillion-dollar affairs.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are in Florida with Gov. Ron DeSantis to praise a week long operation that netted 1,120 arrests of people they say were in the country illegally.

As school districts struggle to control the spread online exploitation among their students, Texas lawmakers could consider banning social media from minors along with other measures in the upcoming legislative session.

State lawmakers have been pushing the dementia fund for years, modeling it after a state fund for cancer research.

Policy experts say undocumented immigrants' cost to hospitals is a small fraction of the total cost from uninsured Texans.

Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has launched an unprecedented campaign of immigration enforcement that has pushed the limits of executive power and clashed with federal judges trying to restrain him.

The program will officially launch at the start of the 2026-27 school year.

A day after legislation was announced by Congressman Al Green that would bring back federal funding to replace stolen SNAP benefits, elected leaders are already chiming in.

The first bill to reach Abbott’s desk this session creates a regulation-cutting state agency under the purview of the governor. It was passed with bipartisan supermajorities.

SOUND OFF: As we prepare for our interview, KPRC 2 would like to hear from you, the viewer, on what questions you’d like us to ask the governor.

The only time the state conducted such an assessment two decades ago, it found that undocumented Texans contributed more to the state’s economy than they cost the state.

The executive director of the Texas Lottery Commission has resigned in the latest shake-up at the state’s retail gambling enterprise amid multiple investigations into large jackpots in 2023 and earlier this year and threats from some lawmakers to shut it down.

A state employee testified Monday that tens of thousands of people in the U.S. unlawfully were treated, but it was unclear how long the data had been collected.

Some are questioning whether lawmakers should commit billions more to border security with illegal crossings dwindling and a Trump immigration crackdown.

Removing lanes to slow down speeding drivers is a long-embraced strategy for improving safety on city streets.

The lieutenant governor proposes that the Texas Senate adopt the House bill, which would eliminate a negotiation over the two versions and cement the victory for supporters.

Anti-voucher Republicans said they voted for the bill so they could fight to improve it, and also to fend off political retribution.

The bill would let families use taxpayer dollars for their children’s private schooling. Lawmakers also signed off on a sweeping $7.7 billion package to boost public school funding.

Health secretary Robert F.

The Texas House also approved more money for schools in a bipartisan vote.

From The Blast: More than 50 House Democrats have signed on to a plan to spike all constitutional amendments unless the House allows voters to decide whether school vouchers will be legalized.

Gov. Greg Abbott said Texas was able to close the Jim Hogg County facility because of Trump’s immigration policies. Records reveal that the reality is more nuanced.

Gov. Greg Abbott will have the opportunity to appoint Boyd’s replacement, furthering his influence on the high court.

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has announced that the special election to fill the late Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner's seat won’t be held until November.

A month after U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner’s death, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott finally issued a proclamation announcing Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025 as the special election date to fill the 18th Congressional District seat.

The decision to wait until November means a narrowly divided Congress will be down a Democratic representative for most of 2025.

The Texas Department of Public Safety and National Guard presence has largely disappeared from Shelby Park, which sits next to the Rio Grande.

A month after U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner’s death, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott explains his reasoning on why he has delayed in calling for a special election to fill the seat representing parts of Houston, a Democratic stronghold, in Congress.

Lawmakers are pursuing legislative changes that would keep more people locked up in overcrowded county jails while awaiting resolution to their cases.

Abbott’s closed-door address to the Federalist Society at UT Law Thursday drew peaceful protests.

The Texas Senate has passed a bill that will crack down on organized fuel theft rings across the state.