Texas Senate

Fallon served in the Texas Senate for two years before running for Congress. He won’t see reelection in the U.S. House.

Despite the Senate moving its plan forward Wednesday, the measure seems destined for deadlock. A Texas House panel also passed its proposal to cut property taxes — which is significantly different from the Senate’s.

Senators, who will sit as a court of impeachment for the suspended attorney general, spent Tuesday meeting in private and will return Wednesday morning.

Suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton faces charges of bribery and obstruction of justice in his upcoming impeachment trial before the Texas Senate.

Ken Paxton was impeached by the Texas House in late May and his fate now rests in the hands of the state Senate. The three-term attorney general is currently suspended and accused of multiple counts of misuse of office and other infractions.

The Texas Senate moved forward with its border-security legislation on Wednesday. That’s the measure has no place to go as long as the Texas House remains away from the Capitol.

House Bill 2127 would block local governments from regulating eight different areas, including labor, finance, and the environment.

Senate Bill 147 was approved by Texas lawmakers Tuesday afternoon. The legislation is a watered-down version of the original proposal, which would have banned citizens of China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from buying land and homes in Texas.

The Senate Special Committee on Redistricting held hearings last week on the current map defining state Senate districts.The map, along with the rest of Texas’s political boundaries, were redrawn in 2021 by the Republican-majority Texas Legislature and are still seeing pushback from Democrats.

The Texas Legislature is required to approve changes to political boundaries during the first regular session after census data is released. But the coronavirus pandemic led lawmakers to pass their latest maps in the offseason.