WEEK IN REVIEW
SENATE UNANIMOUSLY PASSES BUDGET PLAN
(AUSTIN) — The Senate on Tuesday approved its version of the 2026-2027 budget on a vote of 31-0, proposing to spend $153.5 billion in state revenue and $336 billion when including federal funds. This is Finance Chair and Houston Senator Joan Huffman’s second session leading the budget writing process, and she thanked her colleagues for their full support. “This budget goes beyond just being balanced—it is a fiscally conservative plan with strategic investments to ensure Texas remains the nation’s economic powerhouse for years to come,” said Huffman in a statement. “To have unanimous Senate approval on such a detailed and forward-thinking budget is a testament to all of the senators, state agencies, and members of the public that participated in this arduous process.”
Highlights of the plan include billions for property tax cuts, and more money for school safety, DPS troopers, and border security. It also includes funds to cover the school choice program anticipated to pass this session, as well as the creation of a brain health institute to study and work towards a cure for dementia. Once the House passes its version of the budget, five members of each chamber will come together to hammer out the differences, and come to a final proposal. Both budget toplines are very close, indicating that the bodies are in agreement on large sections of the plan.
In committee this week, the Senate Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs Committee sent the Senate’s marquee water bill to the full body, which would ask voters to dedicate $1 billion in state revenue each year to increasing the state’s water supply. Absent serious investment, bill author and committee Chair Senator Charles Perry of Lubbock said Texas won’t have the water capacity to meet the needs of the state’s rapidly growing population. The money in the fund would be used to finance projects like new reservoirs, desalination, and aquifer storage and recovery. It could not pay to move freshwater from one area of the state to another, which Perry views as short-sighted and ineffective. “It has to be new supply, plain and simple,” said Perry. “We cannot move water from one part of the state to another, robbing Peter to pay Paul, and not create overall volume increase for people to actually have new supply…we have to develop new sources and not deplete the existing resources any more than we already have.”
Thursday, the Senate State Affairs Committee considered a bill that would clarify that a risk to the health of the mother is an exception to the state’s ban on abortion. While this has always been the case, said bill author and committee Chair Senator Bryan Hughes of Mineola, confusion around the legal peril a provider might face for providing a medically-necessary abortion has led to unfortunate outcomes, with reports of women facing death or serious injury due to delayed or insufficient care. “The intent of this bill is to remove any excuse: when a mom is danger…that’s always been an exception that we’ve recognized,” said Hughes.
He also offered SB 1880 for consideration by the committee, which would create a civil cause of action against websites that allow women to order abortion-inducing drugs from other states. Despite the illegality of medically-induced abortions in Texas, Hughes says thousands of pills are mailed into the state annually. His bill would allow any Texan to sue a website that allows the order and delivery of pills that cause abortion, or any that provide payment services for such sites. It also permits the parent of a medically-aborted child to file a wrongful death suit against the same entities. Hughes stressed that the bill was aimed at the services that provide these drugs, not the women who order or use them. “Nothing in this bill provides any lawsuit, or claim, or any harm to a mom,” he said.
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