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AUSTIN – A dozen Texas House Republicans who replaced pro-gambling lawmakers said this week they would oppose “any attempt to expand gambling” this session — a setback for efforts to legalize casinos and sports betting in the state.

The 12 GOP freshmen were joined by three returning lawmakers who voted in 2023 to allow online sports betting, but now say they will reject any such proposal. That measure passed the 150-member House with 101 votes two years ago, narrowly clearing the two-thirds threshold needed to amend the Texas Constitution.

The net loss of more than a dozen votes jeopardizes the chances of recreating that tenuous coalition, unless supporters can find votes elsewhere to make up the difference.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Rep. Ken King, chair of the House State Affairs Committee, the lawmakers sought to deal a death blow to the latest proposals to legalize casinos and sports betting, both of which were filed in the House last month. Neither has been referred to a committee this session, though both went through State Affairs in 2023.

“We are confident this legislation does not have the votes necessary to pass the Texas House this session,” the letter reads. “Given the certainty of its failure, I urge you not to waste valuable committee time on an issue that is dead on arrival.”

A spokesperson for King, R-Canadian, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The effort to legalize casinos in Texas has even less wiggle room than the sports betting contingent. Two years ago, a constitutional amendment to authorize “destination resort” casinos received 92 votes in the House, eight shy of the two-thirds mark.

Of the 15 signatories on the letter to King, nine are GOP freshmen whose predecessors voted for the casino measure. A returning member who signed the letter, Rep. J.M. Lozano, R-Kingsville, also supported casino legalization — along with sports betting — and is now vowing to oppose both.

That represents a net loss of 10 votes from the 92 who backed the casino proposal in 2023.

Supporters have tried to sway skeptical lawmakers by arguing that a vote for the constitutional amendment would merely put the issue before voters on the statewide ballot and let them decide whether to allow gambling, taking the final call out of lawmakers’ hands. In contrast, regular bills become law without that extra hurdle, as long as they avoid a veto from the governor.

A statewide poll conducted in January by the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs found that 60% of Texans support legalized sports betting and 73% support authorizing “destination resort casinos.”

Matt Hirsch, a spokesperson for the Texas Destination Resort Alliance — an initiative of the Las Vegas Sands casino empire — said it is “essential for elected officials to listen to their constituents and respect their right to vote.”

“Denying Texans the chance to vote on this matter not only undermines the democratic process, but also disregards the voices of the very people they represent,” Hirsch said in a statement. “The voters of Texas know that destination resorts have the potential to bring significant economic benefits, job creation, and increased tourism to Texas while eliminating the scourge of illegal gaming in Texas.”

Sands has deployed an army of lobbyists to push for casino legalization in Austin, and its owner, Miriam Adelson, has spent millions on statehouse elections in a bid to grow the ranks of gambling supporters in Texas’ lower chamber. Eight signatories of the anti-gambling letter accepted contributions last year from Adelson via the Texas Sands PAC — though Adelson-aligned PACs donated far more, collectively, to several of the signatories’ opponents.

In an apparent reference to the 2026 elections, Hirsch said his group “will make it perfectly clear to the voters in each of these districts where their representative stands.”

Karina Kling, a spokesperson for the Texas Sports Betting Alliance, said, “Poll after poll shows Texans overwhelmingly want the chance to vote on legalizing sports betting and we hope the Texas Legislature will give them that chance.” The group is a collection of the state’s pro sports teams, racetracks and betting platforms, such as FanDuel and DraftKings.

Efforts to loosen Texas’ gambling restrictions have repeatedly failed since they were first enacted in 1856 and further tightened in 1973. The House’s approval of the sports betting measure in 2023 was the furthest either chamber has gone toward expanding gambling, though the move was largely symbolic, because Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — a Republican who runs the Texas Senate — immediately quashed the measure in the upper chamber. Patrick has repeatedly claimed there is minimal support among the Senate’s GOP majority to expand gambling.

With the 74-year-old Patrick in office until January 2027 and vowing to seek another four-year term, the legislative battle over gambling has been centered almost entirely in the House. Supporters are aiming for incremental wins in the lower chamber that would, they hope, lay the groundwork for when the Senate is run by a more sympathetic lieutenant governor.

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

McALLEN — Texas senators advanced a resolution Monday that calls on the U.S. State Department to ensure Mexico meets its obligations to deliver water to the U.S. under a 1944 water treaty.

The Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs Committee voted in favor of the resolution after hearing testimony from state and Rio Grande Valley officials on how Mexico’s failure to deliver water has impacted the local farmers and stalled growth.

“It’s really causing a lot of severe issues not only for the Valley but along the river from El Paso down to Brownsville,” state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, said at the start of the hearing.

“The reality is that even commercially, the growth of the Valley is being stunned because we cannot issue any more builder’s permits because there’s no water” Hinojosa said. “Hopefully, the present Trump administration will be a lot more aggressive in trying to address the issue.”

Under the 1944 treaty, Mexico is required to deliver a total of 1.75 million-acre feet over a five-year cycle. The current cycle ends in October, yet Mexico is behind on its water deliveries by more than a million acre-feet.

The largely symbolic resolution is the latest push from Texas officials to push the federal government to pressure Mexico. Last year, Texas’ congressional delegation secured $280 million in disaster assistance for Valley farmers.

State Sen. Charles Perry, the Lubbock Republican who chairs the committee, praised the efforts of Maria-Elena Giner, the commissioner of the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission, a division of the U.S. State Department that oversees the water treaty.

Under Giner’s leadership, the IBWC secured an amendment to the treaty that provided Mexico more opportunities to deliver water.

However, Perry pointed out that the IBWC has no enforcement power and would like the Trump administration to include the water treaty in their tariff negotiations.

“It would be nice to include water release under the 1944 treaty in those tariff negotiations so that we could get some relief in the Valley,” Perry said.

The lack of water for farmers and ranchers has already had harmful effects on the industry. For example, the last sugar mill in Texas closed in 2024.

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension estimated that the total economic value lost to South Texas because of the lack of irrigation water is about $993 million per year.

Brian Jones, who sits on the board of the Texas Farm Bureau, testified before the committee about his struggles as a farmer in the Valley.

Jones said he is in “survival mode,” planting only half of his crop for the last three years.

“What is crystal clear is that Mexico has no intention of sharing any amount of water they can capture for their own use,” Jones said.

In 2022, a tropical storm filled their reservoirs, but Mexico didn’t deliver any of that water to the U.S. despite already owing 350,000 acre-feet of water at the time.

However, the lack of water is not just because of Mexico’s noncompliance.

In the past, local farmers were able to rely on seasonal tropical storms to fill up the water reservoirs, but the rain missed those watersheds last year. Future rains would fail to make up the debt.

“It’s almost mathematically impossible for them to meet their obligations on this cycle,” Jones said.

The treaty allows Mexico to pay their outstanding water debt during the next five-year cycle but because there is no timeline, Mexico could theoretically wait until the end of the next five-year cycle to deliver the water it owes for this cycle.

David Dunmoyer with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank, said that while the resolution is a critical starting point, the state can’t rely on Mexico alone for water.

“We need an ‘all of the above’ approach that’s desal-produced water and looking to the future of water infrastructure,” he said.

Cities and water districts across the Valley have been seeking different sources of water. But city and county leaders told the committee more money is needed to build the infrastructure to obtain and properly treat that water for public use.

While the major impacts have been limited to the agriculture industry, Mark Dombroski, assistant general manager and chief operating officer for the Brownsville Public Utilities, warned that drinking water for cities like Brownsville and McAllen will be at risk if water remains scarce.

“Invest in South Texas and help us secure alternative water solutions now,” Dombroski said. “Delaying action only makes the crisis worse and solutions more expensive.”

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

For four years while President Joe Biden was in office, Texas lawmakers passed a variety of state laws aimed at curbing illegal immigration into the state and approved spending billions of Texans’ taxpayer dollars in an effort to secure the border.

The Legislature created a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison for people convicted of human smuggling. Lawmakers passed a law that gave state and local police the authority to arrest people suspected of being undocumented — it has not gone into effect while its constitutionality is litigated. And legislators have plowed $11 billion into Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbott’s ongoing border crackdown that deployed state police and Texas National Guard along the state’s nearly 1,300 miles of border with Mexico.

Now with President Donald Trump back in office, lawmakers are not relenting. They have filed dozens of bills that could further cement the state’s role in immigration enforcement — long the sole responsibility of the federal government — should they become law.

The proposals range from trying to force cooperation with federal immigration authorities to giving property tax breaks to border landowners who allow the state to build border barriers on their property.

Lawmakers have filed at least nine similar bills that would require local law enforcement agencies enter into agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Under a 1996 federal immigration law, ICE can delegate local authorities to carry out certain types of immigration enforcement in local jails — where officers can be deputized to question inmates about their immigration status and to serve administrative warrants — and in the field, where officers can be permitted to question people about their immigration status through a model the Trump administration has revived after it fell into disuse following allegations it led to racial profiling.

Such programs serve as “force multipliers” for ICE, an agency of about 6,000 officers with limited resources, according to the federal agency, immigration lawyers and policing experts.

Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have called for Texas authorities to be required to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

While specifics vary, most of the proposed state laws share the same idea: Require local law enforcement to request entering into partnership agreements with ICE known as 287(g) agreements — a reference to the legal statute from which they originate.

Senate Bill 8, filed by Republican state Sen. Joan Huffman of Houston and Georgetown Republican Sen. Charles Schwertner, would require sheriffs in counties with more than 100,000 residents to request a 287(g) agreement with ICE.

Among the criticisms of 287(g) agreements is the potential extra costs for counties that devote resources to processing and jailing immigrants and face potential legal liabilities if an officer is accused of wrongdoing, such as violating a person’s civil rights. The bill would establish grants for sheriffs in counties with fewer than 1 million residents, but not for sheriffs of large Texas counties.

Patrick designated the bill a top priority of his for the legislative session even before it was filed.

As of early March, 43 Texas law enforcement agencies already had 287(g) agreements in place, the majority of which are for the jail programs. Only the attorney general’s office, Nixon Police Department and sheriffs in Goliad and Smith counties had signed 287(g) agreements for the “task force model” that grants police limited immigration enforcement authority while conducting their routine duties.

Lawmakers are also looking at ways to study the costs of illegal immigration.

State Sen. Mayes Middleton’s Senate Bill 825 would task the Texas Department of Public Safety with conducting a study on the economic, environmental and financial impact of illegal immigration. The state last performed such a study in 2006, when then-state Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn found that undocumented immigrants contributed more to Texas than they cost the state.

Meanwhile, House Bill 2587 by state Rep. Mike Olcott, R-Fort Worth, seeks to study the cost of providing hospital services to undocumented immigrants. Last summer, Abbott ordered hospitals to start asking patients for their citizenship status. Hospitals can’t refuse to provide medical treatment based on a patient’s answer.

Rep. Ryan Guillen, a Republican from Rio Grande City, has proposed expanding a fund the state established in 2023 to reimburse homeowners in border counties whose property has been damaged by border crime — which can include everything from migrants cutting fences while passing through their land to damage from high-speed police pursuits of suspected migrants and smugglers that end in a crash.

House Bill 246 would expand the potential sources of revenue for the fund so the attorney general’s office, which administers it, could accept donations, gifts and other revenue designated by the Legislature, which appropriated $18 million in state money for the fund over the 2023-24 biennium.

Lawmakers also have introduced bills that would require companies to use E-Verify — a federal government website that helps businesses determine whether an immigrant is legally allowed to work in the U.S. — if they want to bid for state contracts.

House Bill 1308 would require state agencies to only award contracts to businesses that participate in E-Verify. The proposal would also apply to subcontractors hired by a company with a state contract.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Carl Tepper, R-Lubbock, would also suspend the business license of any business that contracts with the state if they stopped using E-Verify during their state contract.

As part of Tepper’s bill, people who suspect a state agency has hired an undocumented person can send information to the Texas Attorney General’s office for possible investigation.

Like Tepper’s proposal, House Bill 2744, sponsored by state Rep. Cody Vasut, R-Angleton, would require all state contractors to use E-Verify, and would also impose a $10,000 fine for each undocumented worker a state contractor is caught employing.

For the past four years, the state has approached border landowners seeking permission to build barriers along the 1,200-mile-long Texas-Mexico border. But the state has faced a challenge in finding enough willing landowners to lease part of their land to the state.

House Bill 247, introduced by state Rep. Ryan Guillen, R-Rio Grande City, would give a property tax break to landowners who have allowed state or federal border barriers to be built on their property.

The proposal says the state tax break would be available to any landowners who allow the state or the federal government to install “a wall, barrier, fence, wire, road trench, technology” or any type of infrastructure “to surveil or impede the movement of persons or objects crossing the Texas-Mexico border.”

Another proposal, Senate Bill 316 by state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, would allow the state to use eminent domain to take private property for border wall construction. The proposal does not say how much money a private landowner would get if the government seizes their property. But under Texas law, the owner would “receive adequate compensation.”

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

HOUSTON (AP) – Mourners in Houston paid tribute to the late U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner of Texas as he lay in state at city hall Tuesday, part of a week of public events to honor the Democratic lawmaker and former mayor.

Turner, 70, died on March 5, just weeks into his first term in the House and only hours after attending President Donald Trump’s address to Congress in Washington. His family said he died at his home following health complications.

Residents observed a memorial at Houston City Hall, where Turner served as mayor for eight years before being elected to Congress in November. Houston Mayor John Whitmire made brief remarks to mourners and the Houston Symphony performed while visitors paid their respects.

“Sylvester knew each and every community, and he treated everyone with equality and inclusion,” Whitmire said. “That’s what made him really special. He brought that public service and that message across not only our great city, but our great state.”

Turner had filled the House seat held by longtime Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who died in July. Prior to becoming mayor, Turner served as a legislator in the Texas House of Representatives for 27 years.

Turner is also scheduled to lie in state at the Texas Capitol beginning Thursday. His funeral is scheduled for Saturday in Houston.

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has not yet announced when a special election will be held for Turner’s seat.