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AUSTIN (AP) – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Thursday that he has launched an investigation into one of the state’s Medicaid insurance providers after allegations that the company illegally spied on Texans.

The state is investigating Superior HealthPlan, an insurance company that provides Medicaid coverage to adults and children and coverage for the Children’s Health Insurance Program in Texas, for allegedly using private investigators to perform surveillance and gather potentially confidential information on lawmakers, journalists and other Texans.

“The allegations concerning Superior’s actions, such as actions that were characterized as potentially blackmailing lawmakers to secure state contracts and surveilling private citizens to avoid paying legitimate claims, are deeply troubling,” Paxton said in a statement.

Superior HealthPlan CEO Mark Sanders was questioned Wednesday by members of the Texas House Committee on the Delivery of Government Efficiency about his company’s use of private investigators. The topic surfaced as lawmakers questioned company representatives about potential fraud and waste of taxpayer funds connected to its Medicaid contracts, and Sanders told the committee members that the company used private investigators in the past, but hasn’t done so for the past few years.

On Thursday, Superior fired Sanders, the Dallas Morning News reported.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Sanders defended his company’s actions at the hearing by saying that the information gathered was nothing beyond what was publicly available.

“It was just understanding (what interests people), so we could have been knowledgeable of when we’re meeting with different individuals. That’s really it,” Sanders replied.

Lawmakers expressed concern that the actions aimed to secure leverage to help the company win future state contracts, discredit legitimate insurance claims by individuals, and track journalists reporting on allegations against Superior HealthPlan.

“I disagree. You wanted leverage, and you felt that you were going to use it. Just disgusting,” said state Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington.

State Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield, asked Sanders that if there was no intent to gain leverage over people, why did private investigators working for Superior HealthPlan look into legislators’ divorce records?

“I don’t recall at the time,” Sanders told lawmakers.

House Bill 5061, filed by state Rep. Jeff Leach earlier this month, addresses some of the lawmaker’s concerns by prohibiting any contractor that works with the state from engaging in surveillance.

“We’re up here talking to a company who has received millions, billions of dollars in taxpayer funds through Medicaid contracts, who has used that money to hire private investigators to follow around patients and legislators that are (now) asking questions about what the heck is going on,” said state Rep. Ellen Troxclair, R-Lakeway. “It’s ridiculous.”

Tiffany Young, spokesperson for Texas Health and Human Services, referred questions on how the investigation could affect Texans’ Medicaid coverage to Paxton’s office. The attorney general’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The race to fill a Texas congressional seat has candidates but no election date more than three weeks after Rep. Sylvester Turner’s death left a vacancy in a stronghold for Democrats, who are eager to cut into Republicans’ narrow U.S. House majority.

Turner, a former Houston mayor, died March 5 just weeks into his first term in Congress. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has the sole authority to call a special election but has not said when he might do so, drawing criticism from some Democrats who have accused him of trying to help protect the GOP’s margins.

The seat is one of four vacancies in Congress, including two in Florida, where voters next week will choose successors in special elections for a pair of GOP-held districts. Republicans currently hold 218 seats, while Democrats hold 213 seats.

“An announcement on a special election will be made at a later date,” Abbott spokesman Andrew Mahaleris said in an email, in response to whether the House majority is factoring into the governor’s decision-making.

Elections in Texas are typically held in May and November.

In 2021, Abbott called for a special election two weeks after Republican Rep. Ron Wright became the first member of Congress to die after contracting COVID-19 during the pandemic. Last year, Abbott called a special election for the vacant seat of Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee about two weeks after her death in July.

“This is very clearly playing political games. They know the U.S. majority in the House is on razor-thin margins,” said Democratic state Rep. Gene Wu of Houston, leader of the state House Democratic Caucus.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced that he was pulling Rep. Elise Stefanik’s nomination to the United Nations over concerns that it could threaten Republicans’ tight majority in the House, posting on his Truth Social platform that it was “essential that we maintain EVERY Republican Seat in Congress.”

Trump’s announcement reflects a growing concern among GOP members in the House who are fearful that their already threadbare majority will narrow and jeopardize their control of the chamber and ability to carry out Trump’s sweeping agenda.

New York Democrats had introduced legislation that would have delayed the special election and allowed Stefanik’s seat to remain open for several months but put the measure on ice after intense pushback from Republicans.

Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee and former Houston City Council Member Amanda Edwards are two of the top candidates vying for the Texas seat. Menefee quickly acquired endorsements from former Democratic Reps. Colin Allred and Beto O’Rourke. Edwards, an attorney, ran for the seat twice last year.

In Arizona, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs called for a special election days after Rep. Raul Grijalva died on March 13.

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Associated Press writer Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York, contributed to this report.

Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An expanse of Gulf Coast federal waters larger than the state of Colorado was unlawfully opened up for offshore drilling leases, according to a ruling by a federal judge, who said the Department of Interior did not adequately account for the offshore drilling leases’ impacts on planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions and an endangered whale species.

The future of one of the most recent offshore drilling lease sales authorized under the Biden administration is in jeopardy after District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Amit Mehta’s finding on Thursday that the federal agency violated bedrock environmental regulations when it allowed bidding on 109,375 square miles (283,280 square kilometers) of Gulf Coast waters.

Environmental groups, the federal government and the oil and gas industry are now discussing remedies. Earth Justice Attorney George Torgun, representing the plaintiffs, said one outcome on the table is invalidating the sale of leases worth $250 million across 2,500 square miles (6,475 square kilometers) of Gulf federal waters successfully bid on by companies.

The leases in the Gulf Coast were expected to produce up to 1.1 billion barrels of oil and more than 4 trillion cubic feet (113 billion cubic meters) of natural gas over 50 years, according to a government analysis. Burning that oil would increase carbon dioxide emissions by tens of millions of tons, the analysis found.

The agency “failed to take a ‘hard look’” at the full extent of the carbon footprint of expanding drilling in the Gulf Coast, the judge wrote.

The auction was one of three offshore oil and gas lease sales mandated as part of a 2022 climate bill compromise designed to ensure support from now-retired Sen. Joe Manchin, a leading recipient of oil and gas industry donations. Another of the mandated oil and gas lease sales, in Alaska’s Cook Inlet, was overturned by a federal judge last July on similar grounds.

“If federal officials are going to continue greenlighting offshore drilling, the least they can do is fully analyze its harms,” said Hallie Templeton, legal director at Friends of the Earth, a nonprofit that is of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “We will keep fighting to put a full stop to this destructive industry, and in the meantime, we will keep a close watch on the government to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and mandates.”

The drilling would also threaten the Rice’s whale, a species with less than 100 individuals estimated to remain and which lives exclusively in the Gulf Coast, according to court records filed by environmental advocacy groups.

A Department of the Interior spokesperson said the agency could not comment on pending litigation.

The process did not meet the standards of the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, which requires federal agencies analyzes the environmental impacts of their actions prior to decision-making around federal lands.

While Joe Biden later sought to ban offshore drilling in his last days in office, President Donald Trump’s administration has pushed a “drill, baby, drill” agenda expanding the fossil fuel industry, withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement and rolling back environmental regulations — including for NEPA.

The American Petroleum Institute, or API, an oil and gas trade association representing more than 600 firms and a party to the Gulf Coast case, said it is evaluating its options after this week’s ruling.

API spokesperson Scott Lauermann said the case is an example of activists “weaponizing” a permitting process, “underscoring how permitting reform is essential to ensuring access to affordable, reliable energy.”

Chevron, a defendant in the lawsuit, declined to comment and referred The Associated Press to the API’s statement.

Three offshore oil and gas lease sales are scheduled over the course of the next five years.

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Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96.

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — Drenching rains along the Texas-Mexico border trapped hundreds of people in flooded homes and in cars stranded in high waters, scrambling rescue crews to calls for help that continued Friday even as the downpours let up. At least four people died, including some who drowned.

Officials warned that the devastation from the storms — which set records in parts of Texas’ low-lying Rio Grande Valley — was only starting to come into focus. In Mexico, hundreds sought temporary shelter, and videos on social media showed military personnel wading through chest-high waters.

On the U.S. side, officials said at least three people were killed in Hidalgo County, where officials said more than 21 inches (53 centimeters) of rain this week soaked the city of Harlingen. The region is rich with farmland, and Texas’ agriculture commissioner said the damage included significant losses to agriculture and livestock.

“The bed is the only thing dry right now, because the sofas are soaked. Everything is soaked,” said Jionni Ochoa, 46, from his home in Palm Valley, near Harlingen. He and his wife were still waiting to be rescued Friday as the water inside reached their knees.

He said water started coming into their house the previous night and began pouring out of the electrical sockets. They turned off the power and tried to save as much as they could.

“Things I stacked up, the rain, the water made it float, and it knocked it down. So everything got messed up, everything got ruined,” Ochoa said.

Hidalgo County officials said in a statement that they did not immediately have more information about the three deaths except that they involved law enforcement efforts. The Mexican state of Tamaulipas reported that an 83-year-old man drowned in Reynosa, which is across the border from McAllen, Texas.

Earlier Friday, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that the driver of a vehicle suspected of taking part in migrant smuggling tried crossing a flooded roadway in Hidalgo County and plunged into a canal. The agency said the body of one person who drowned was recovered and another was missing. It was not immediately known if those were among the deaths reported by county officials.

In Alamo, a small Texas border city, crews responded to more than 100 water rescues, including people stranded in vehicles and trapped in homes, Fire Department Chief R.C. Flores said. Dozens more rescues were made in nearby Weslaco, which was inundated with about 14 inches (36 centimeters) of rain, according to Mayor Adrian Gonzalez.

“It’s a historic rainstorm, and it’s affecting all the Valley, not just Weslaco,” Gonzalez said.

Thousands of power outages were reported, and more than 20 school districts and college campuses canceled classes. Valley International Airport in Harlingen was closed Friday, and all flights were canceled.

Between 7 and 12 inches of rain (20 and 31 centimeters) fell in parts of northeastern Mexico, according to Tamaulipas authorities.

Luis Gerardo González de la Fuente, state coordinator of emergencies, said the most affected city was Reynosa but conditions were also dangerous in the border cities of Rio Bravo, Miguel Aleman and part of Matamoros, south of Brownsville, Texas.

Some 640 military personnel were deployed in the area. Authorities said electricity was being restored as water levels dropped but did not clarify how many people were still without this service.

In Texas, Emma Alaniz was resigned to not being able to leave her home in a colonia, which is an unincorporated neighborhood usually located in a rural area of a county with underdeveloped infrastructure. She described her home as being on “an island.”

“For today, I won’t be able to go anywhere, because I don’t have a big vehicle,” she said. “I have a small car, and I won’t be able to take it out to the flooded street.”

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Lozano reported from Houston. Associated Press writer Alfredo Peña in Ciudad Victoria, Mexico, contributed.

McALLEN (AP) — Drenching rain along the Texas-Mexico border let up Friday, but rescues were still ongoing a day after severe storms trapped residents in their homes, forced drivers to abandon their vehicles on flooded roads and shut down an airport.

In Harlingen, officials said their city received more than 21 inches (53 centimeters) of rain this week, with the heaviest rainfall on Thursday causing severe flooding that had authorities rescuing more than 200 residents, with another 200 people still waiting to be rescued.

“This of course has been a historic and challenging event for the city. But Harlingen is strong. We have faced adversity before and we will get through this together,” Mayor Norma Sepulveda said at a Friday afternoon news conference.

In Alamo, the police and fire department responded to more than 100 water rescues, including people stranded in their vehicles and trapped in their homes, Fire Department Chief R.C. Flores said at a news conference Friday afternoon.

Officials estimated a couple hundred homes in Alamo were flooded by the heavy rainfall.

Flores said Alamo was one of many cities in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas that were flooded and had damage from Thursday’s thunderstorms but that all were working to help their residents.

“I assure the public that we are assessing the situation on the hour, every hour. We’re constantly going out, not just in our city,” Flores said. “Just because the storm is over, it doesn’t mean that the emergencies and the disaster is over. We are going to continue to work as long as we need to.”

Weslaco Mayor Adrian Gonzalez said his city was inundated with about 14 inches (36 centimeters) of rain, prompting 30 to 40 water rescues of stranded motorists and residents trapped in their homes by rising floodwaters.

“It’s a historic rainstorm and it’s affecting all the Valley, not just Weslaco. It’s just so much water in a short period of time,” Gonzalez told reporters at a news conference.

Television news footage from flooded communities in South Texas showed multiple waterlogged cars abandoned on streets on Thursday and drivers waiting on sidewalks for the floodwaters to recede.

Between 6 inches (15 centimeters) and 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain fell in many parts of South Texas in the past 24 hours, according to the National Weather Service.

In neighboring Cameron County, officials asked Gov. Greg Abbott to declare a disaster for the county after more than 17 inches of rain caused significant flooding.

“The rainfall amounts we received have been record-setting, and not in a good way. All county resources are being utilized right now, and we are assisting in all ways possible,” Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr., the county’s top elected official, said in a Facebook post.

Valley International Airport in Harlingen was closed on Friday and all flights were canceled due to area flooding.

“We are working tirelessly to reopen and focused on ensuring safety,” airport officials said in a statement.

More than 3,400 in several counties in South Texas remained without power on Friday afternoon, according to AEP Texas.

A flood warning was still in effect for portions of South Texas, including Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy counties, through early Friday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.

“There’s a break from the rain this morning, which will allow flood waters to gradually recede, but we’ll still need to keep an eye on the development of isolated showers and thunderstorms once again this afternoon,” the National Weather Service said on social media. “Any additional rainfall will be quick to cause flooding issues given the heavy rainfall that has already fallen.”

One middle school in Alamo was scheduled to remain open as a shelter for residents through Friday. One shelter had been opened in Weslaco and officials in Harlingen had opened the city’s convention center as a shelter.

More than 20 South Texas school districts and college campuses canceled classes on Friday due to the severe weather and flooding.

TEXAS (AP) – At least five states have active measles outbreaks as of Friday, and Texas’ is the largest with 400 cases.

Already, the U.S. has more measles cases this year than in all of 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said. Other states with outbreaks — defined as three or more cases — include New Mexico, Kansas, Ohio and Oklahoma. Since February, two unvaccinated people have died from measles-related causes.

The new outbreaks confirm health experts’ fears that the virus will take hold in other U.S. communities with low vaccination rates and that the spread could stretch on for a year. The World Health Organization said this week cases in Mexico are linked to the Texas outbreak.

Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that’s airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines, and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000.

Here’s what else you need to know about measles in the U.S.
How many measles cases are there in Texas and New Mexico?

Texas’ outbreak began two months ago. State health officials said Friday there were 73 new cases of measles since Tuesday, bringing the total to 400 across 17 counties — most in West Texas. Forty-one people have been hospitalized since the outbreak began, and Andrews and Midland counties were new to the list.

New Mexico announced one new case Friday, bringing the state’s total to 44. New Mexico health officials say the cases are linked to Texas’ outbreak based on genetic testing. Most are in Lea County, where two people have been hospitalized, and two are in Eddy County.

A school-age child died of measles in Texas in late February, and New Mexico reported its first measles-related death in an adult on March 6.
How many cases are there in Kansas?

Kansas has 23 cases in six counties in the southwest part of the state. Kiowa and Stevens counties have six cases each, while Grant, Morton, Haskell and Gray counties have five or fewer.

The state’s first reported case, identified in Stevens County on March 13, is linked to the Texas and New Mexico outbreaks based on genetic testing, a state health department spokesperson said. But health officials have not determined how the person was exposed.
How many cases are there in Oklahoma?

Oklahoma stayed steady at nine cases this week — seven confirmed and two probable cases. The first two probable cases were “associated” with the West Texas and New Mexico outbreaks, the state health department said.

A state health department spokesperson said measles exposures were confirmed in Tulsa and Rogers counties, but wouldn’t say which counties had cases.
How many cases are there in Ohio?

Ohio has 10 cases of measles in Ashtabula County in the northeast corner of the state, nine of those newly reported this week. The first case was in an unvaccinated adult who had interacted with someone who had traveled internationally.

And in central Ohio, Knox County officials are tracing exposures from person who visited while contagious with measles. A measles outbreak in central Ohio sickened 85 in 2022.
Where else is measles showing up in the U.S.?

Measles cases also have been reported in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, and Washington.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines an outbreak as three or more related cases. The agency counted five clusters that qualified as outbreaks in 2025 as of Friday.

In the U.S., cases and outbreaks are generally traced to someone who caught the disease abroad. It can then spread, especially in communities with low vaccination rates. In 2019, the U.S. saw 1,274 cases and almost lost its status of having eliminated measles.
Do you need an MMR booster?

The best way to avoid measles is to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old.

People at high risk for infection who got the shots many years ago may want to consider getting a booster if they live in an area with an outbreak, said Scott Weaver with the Global Virus Network, an international coalition. Those may include family members living with someone who has measles or those especially vulnerable to respiratory diseases because of underlying medical conditions.

Adults with “presumptive evidence of immunity” generally don’t need measles shots now, the CDC said. Criteria include written documentation of adequate vaccination earlier in life, lab confirmation of past infection or being born before 1957, when most people were likely to be infected naturally.

A doctor can order a lab test called an MMR titer to check your levels of measles antibodies, but health experts don’t always recommend this route and insurance coverage can vary.

Getting another MMR shot is harmless if there are concerns about waning immunity, the CDC says.

People who have documentation of receiving a live measles vaccine in the 1960s don’t need to be revaccinated, but people who were immunized before 1968 with an ineffective measles vaccine made from “killed” virus should be revaccinated with at least one dose, the agency said. That also includes people who don’t know which type they got.
What are the symptoms of measles?

Measles first infects the respiratory tract, then spreads throughout the body, causing a high fever, runny nose, cough, red, watery eyes and a rash.

The rash generally appears three to five days after the first symptoms, beginning as flat red spots on the face and then spreading downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet. When the rash appears, the fever may spike over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the CDC.

Most kids will recover from measles, but infection can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death.
How can you treat measles?

There’s no specific treatment for measles, so doctors generally try to alleviate symptoms, prevent complications and keep patients comfortable.
Why do vaccination rates matter?

In communities with high vaccination rates — above 95% — diseases like measles have a harder time spreading through communities. This is called “herd immunity.”

But childhood vaccination rates have declined nationwide since the pandemic and more parents are claiming religious or personal conscience waivers to exempt their kids from required shots.

The U.S. saw a rise in measles cases in 2024, including an outbreak in Chicago that sickened more than 60.

AUSTIN – The Texas Tribune reports that the Trump administration this week announced plans to clawback $11 billion in pandemic-era grants that could harm local Texas public health departments as they battle a historic measles outbreak.

In Lubbock, where many of the 40 Texans infected with measles have been hospitalized, grant funding affected by the announcement has paid for an epidemiologist who has directly responded to the measles outbreak in West Texas that has killed a 6-year-old girl. In Dallas, the grant funding was helping to equip a biolaboratory that will support more testing for pathogens, including measles.

“It’s kind of crazy to have this funding cut,” said Lubbock’s public health director Katherine Wells. “I don’t have a savings account in public health.”

The Trump administration confirmed Tuesday that it was going to eliminate funding that had been created to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, prioritizing instead on projects that address chronic diseases and the president’s Make America Healthy Again initiative. Much of that funding, however, has been used to pay for infrastructure to respond to infectious diseases other than COVID, including measles, local health officials have said.

The Texas Department of State Health Services notified public health departments late Tuesday of the federal government’s plans. State officials have not provided specifics on how much money is cut or how many health departments are impacted.

“DSHS was notified that the federal grant funding for Immunization/COVID, Epidemiology Laboratory Capacity (ELC/COVID), and Health Disparities/COVID, is terminated as of March 24, 2025,” according to the the notice from the agency’s associate commissioner Imelda Garcia. “The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS or System Agency) is issuing this notice to pause all activities immediately. Please do not accrue any additional costs as of the date of this notice.”

Wells said the funding cut will impact her office’s work combating the spread of measles. Lubbock has been using three grants to help pay for extra temporary staff, a part-time nurse and a full-time epidemiologist to help with vaccinations, answering phones and working with testing of patients. Two of the city’s three grants were not set to expire until 2026.

Ten of the state’s 327 measles cases have been confirmed in Lubbock and 226 cases have been in Gaines County, about 90 minutes southwest of Lubbock.

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This measles outbreak has further exposed Texas’ threadbare public health system.

The grants, she said, allowed her to hire eight people to help shoulder the workload the outbreak has brought. Since January, Lubbock hospitals have treated many of the more than 300 patients infected with measles, including a 6-year-old who died on Feb. 26.

“We’re trying to figure it out,” Wells said. But with state and federal funds cut, city and county health department that counted on those COVID-19 era grants for new programs and outreach will now have to go to local taxpayers to help shore up the abrupt shortfall.

Dallas County has already broken ground on a $52 million biolab to help combat future health threats. Their health director, Dr. Philip Huang, said the grant money Dallas County had received was going to be used to help equip that new lab.

“It was a lot of equipment,” Huang said. “These machines can help with COVID but these machines also help with our preparedness and ability to test a lot of other pathogens … including measles.”

Like Wells, he and other public health officials are now going to have to determine how to still move forward without this funding.

“The things that we’re doing and using the funds for COVID have great implications for our future preparedness for everything else so we’re not in the same situation at the start of COVID,” he said. “We had seen how little investment there had been in public health, so it’s very short sighted to say, ‘OK, well these were COVID funds it’s over.’ It’s not.”

DALLAS – The Dallas Morning News reports that Texas Democrats are pondering the path forward after a disastrous 2024 election season that bolstered Republican control of the state and left them nearly powerless against a renewed wave of conservative legislation. The deliberations will accelerate Saturday, when members of the Democratic Party’s Executive Committee pick a new leader to replace longtime chairman Gilberto Hinojosa. Hinojosa announced his resignation in November, just days after the disappointing election results. Though chairpersons of Texas political parties don’t have the clout of their counterparts in other states, the Democrats’ next leader will help with messaging, grassroots activity and fundraising to boost candidates up and down the ballot. Perhaps just as essential, many Democrats agree they need someone — whether it’s the next party leader or an elected official — to pull the sometimes disparate factions of the party together in order to win elections.

The November election was the latest reminder that Democrats can’t figure out how to win elections in a red state they haven’t won statewide in 30 years, even as demographic shifts have given them opportunities to break through. The 2024 elections season demonstrated that as Republicans from President Donald Trump to Gov. Greg Abbott push their conservative agenda, Democrats are often powerless to stop them. It ended with Hinojosa’s resignation after he made comments suggesting the party focused on the wrong issues during the most recent campaign. Some Democrats have offered potential solutions that ranged from being prepared to take advantage of Republican missteps, developing messages that are more relevant to average voters and being tougher in countering Trump and the GOP.

AUSTIN – The Austin American-Statesman reports that almost 19 years ago, Brad Brown’s daughter, Ashley, was a West Brook High School soccer player bound for a playoff game in Houston when the bus carrying the team flipped over. Ashley was one of two Beaumont students who died in the March 29, 2006, crash. The bus they were riding on didn’t have seat belts. “No one on that bus escaped without life-changing wounds,” Brown said. Brown has spent the past nearly 20 years advocating for safer student transportation, including for school buses to have seat belts. Brown, who hopes a newly proposed bill will help achieve that goal, traveled to the Texas Capitol on Wednesday to voice support for Senate Bill 546.

The bill would tighten the state’s exemptions for installing seat belts on school buses and, for the first time, mandate widespread reporting about the presence of restraints in Texas’ school bus fleet. Sen. Jose´ Mene´ndez, D-San Antonio, who authored the legislation, presented the bill to the Senate Committee on Transportation almost exactly a year after a deadly Bastrop County crash involving a school bus. The March 22, 2024, accident resulted in the deaths of a prekindergarten student and a 33-year-old man when a concrete pump truck collided with a Hays school district bus. The bus was carrying 44 Tom Green Elementary School students returning from a field trip to the Capital of Texas Zoo in Bastrop County. The Bastrop County crash was “horrific,” Mene´ndez said. “Because of tragedies like this and others, the state’s been working to increase school bus safety for almost 20 years.” A 2017 law already requires all school buses to have seat belts but excludes buses purchased before 2017. The law also allows districts to exempt themselves from the mandate if they can’t financially support the purchase of new buses.