Day 42: Texas Republicans Are Failing Texans—And They Don’t Care

The state is crumbling, but the GOP is focused on banning DEI and protecting billionaires.

It’s a new week, and we’re back at it. Two Senate Committee met yesterday. First, the Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs passed several infrastructure-related bills. Then, the Senate Committee on State Affairs discussed SB28, a bill to ban courier services from the Texas Lottery.

In the context of the Texas Lottery, a courier service is a third-party company that purchases lottery tickets on behalf of customers and delivers them through an app or website. These services act as intermediaries, allowing people to buy lottery tickets without visiting a physical retailer. The Republicans believe that fraud and money laundering are happening through courier services, so they plan on banning it this session.

It should be noted that Governor Greg Abbott appointed all of the Texas Lottery Commissioners. We repeatedly see this pattern: Texas Republicans run things into the ground, then throw fits about the disasters they created and claim only they can fix them.

The State Affairs Committee met for over seven hours yesterday, six of which were spent on SB28. The other bills that the Senate Committee on State Affairs debated yesterday included:

• SJR34 - Proposing a constitutional amendment protecting the right of parents to raise their children. This is entirely hypocritical since every session, the Senate passes bills interfering with a parent’s right to healthcare, education, and other personal decisions for their children, especially when it comes to gender-affirming care, curriculum choices, and vaccine requirements.

• SCR9 - Urging Congress not to expand the Supreme Court.

• SB706 - Recognizing concealed handgun licenses from other states in Texas.

Making healthcare more affordable?

Last week, I heard Senator Lois Kolkhorst (R-SD18) mention how excited she was to work on a committee to make healthcare more affordable in Texas. I didn’t know what she was talking about then, but looking at some of the stuff from Republicans this week, it’s all starting to come together.

The Senate Committee on Health and Human Services will meet tomorrow to discuss two bills. The first is SB25 from Kolkhorst, which would establish a Texas Nutrition Advisory Committee and require food manufacturers to label artificial additives.

Nutritious food is great, and educating people about healthy eating is important. But do you know what would do much more to improve Texas’ health outcomes?

Expanding Medicaid.

Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the country, and every session, Republicans refuse to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, leaving over a million Texans without access to affordable healthcare. You can teach kids all day about the dangers of ultra-processed foods, but that doesn’t change the fact that healthy food in Texas is significantly more expensive than processed junk.

What good is a Texas Nutrition Advisory Committee when millions of people can’t even afford to see a doctor? And if you’re worried about nutrition, maybe start by addressing the food deserts that leave entire communities, especially rural areas and low-income neighborhoods, without access to fresh, affordable produce.

SB314, which would ban certain food additives from being included in free or reduced-price meals provided by school districts, is the second bill up for discussion in the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services tomorrow.

At first glance, this might seem like a well-intentioned effort to improve nutrition for kids. But here’s the question: Why only poor children? Why not all children? If these food additives are dangerous, why is the ban only applied to meals served under free and reduced-price programs rather than all school meals?

This isn’t about protecting children’s health. It’s about optics. Republicans love to police what poor people eat while conveniently ignoring the same issues when they affect wealthier families. If lawmakers were genuinely concerned about harmful food additives, they’d be banning them from all school cafeterias, not just meals served to low-income students.

If Republicans really cared about kids’ health, they’d be working to increase funding for school meal programs.

But they aren’t. Instead, they’d rather restrict what’s served to the most vulnerable kids while doing nothing to address why so many Texas families rely on free and reduced-price lunches in the first place.

Yesterday, Representative Tom Oliverson (R-HD130), an anesthesiologist, announced his “Healthy Tomorrow for Texas” legislative package that follows the same performative attempt by Texas Republicans to appear like they care about healthcare.

What good is more nutrition training when millions of Texans can’t afford to see a doctor? Expanding Medicaid would do far more for public health than ensuring doctors know the difference between kale and quinoa.

HB2036 proposes adding Intensive Outpatient Therapy Programs (IOP) and Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP) to Medicaid. While this could help some Texans access mid-level mental health services, it does nothing to address the severe shortage of mental health providers, especially in rural Texas. Again, if Texas accepted federal Medicaid expansion, far more people could get the care they need without these half-measures.

HB2038, The DOCTOR Act, supposedly helps solve Texas’s physician shortage by making it easier for foreign-trained doctors and veterans to practice in the state. While that’s not necessarily a bad idea, it dodges the larger issue: Texas has a healthcare workforce crisis because lawmakers have gutted funding for public health, refused to expand Medicaid, and made Texas an incredibly hostile place to practice medicine (especially in reproductive healthcare).

It’s just the same bullshit, over and over, session after session. Republicans refuse to expand Medicaid, but they push feel-good measures like “nutrition training” and “reducing red tape” while leaving millions uninsured.

Later this week in the Senate.

The Committee on Border Security will hold its first hearing of the session, and the Education Committee will meet to discuss several bills, including a book-banning bill by Angela Paxton (R-SD08).

The Texas Senate is the most conservative body in the state legislature, dominated by Republicans who are more focused on culture wars and serving billionaires than actually improving life for everyday Texans.

Working-class Texans, public schools, and healthcare access are never the Senate’s priority. Keeping their wealthy donors happy and pushing extreme right-wing ideology always comes first.

Texas Democrats have the numbers to change this if only they could convince millions of non-voters actually to show up.

House Subcommittees on Appropriations will be meeting all week.

We’ve finally reached the point in the legislative session where more committee hearings are happening than I can watch in a day. I’ll probably miss some House hearings on the budget since we already watched all of the Senate hearings on the budget. I may be able to catch up with some on the weekend.

Every government agency is underfunded, understaffed, and struggling with outdated IT systems. Watching the House hearings on the budget will not teach us new things, but it will give us insight into the House members and perhaps even catch some viral moments.

Like yesterday, when Representative Brian Harrison (R-HD10) went full hoods off in a stunning display of racist outrage over civil rights protections and diversity efforts at the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). Instead of discussing actual infrastructure issues, like fixing roads, improving public transit, or ensuring rural Texans have reliable transportation, Harrison ranted about the existence of a Civil Rights Division within the agency.

His biggest grievance? That TxDOT was following state and federal law by considering disadvantaged and historically underutilized businesses in contract decisions. He practically foamed at the mouth over the fact that equity programs exist to help minority and women-owned businesses have a fair shot at state contracts, which has been federally required for decades. But in Harrison’s world, any attempt to level the playing field is an affront to his white grievance politics.

Texas Republicans like Harrison don’t care about fairness or the economy. They care about preserving power for the same people who’ve always had it. And in case it wasn’t obvious, when they talk about “protecting taxpayer dollars” from “DEI initiatives,” what they really mean is keeping state money flowing to the same old wealthy, white, and well-connected businesses that have always gotten it.

As usual, Republicans are laser-focused on all the wrong priorities while ignoring the real crises Texans face.

Healthcare remains unaffordable, public schools are underfunded, and infrastructure is crumbling, yet the GOP is too busy stoking culture wars and protecting corporate interests to actually govern.

Meanwhile, Democrats could change the game entirely if they found a way to mobilize the millions of Texans who don’t vote. That’s the real battle. Texas isn’t a red state. It’s a non-voting state. And until that changes, we’re stuck watching the same cycle of corruption, cruelty, and incompetence play out in every legislative session.

But it’s still early, and the fights ahead will be loud, ugly, and revealing.

• March 14: The last day Legislators can file bills.

• June 2: The 89th Legislative Session ends.

• Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.

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