Latest news with #CharlieGeren
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Texas legislature moves to finalize bills in the final days of session
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Deadlines for passing bills on second and third readings have come and gone in the Texas Capitol, and now lawmakers turn their attention to the final steps of passing remaining bills in the final days of the session. At this point in the session, House bills amended by the Senate and Senate bills amended by the House are being returned to their originating chamber for final approval. The sponsor of the bill must tell each body if they concur with the changes made to their legislation. If not, the bill moves on to conference committee, like House Bill 3071 by State Rep. Charlie Geren, a Republican from Fort Worth. He got up to the front mic of the House chamber to talk about amendments made to his bill, which relates to the cancellation of certain solid waste disposal permits. 'They're not any good and I am requesting to go to conference,' Geren said to thunderous cheers in the chamber, a point of levity after long consecutive days and nights of debating and voting. When a conference committee request is approved there are five members selected, known as conferees, from each chamber, including the two bill sponsors. What has been described as a closed-door negotiation between the ten members is actually more like a negotiation between two people. Dennis Bonnen, the former Speaker of the House, said most of the time negotiations begin even before a conference committee is called. 'Your lead author in the House, your lead author in the Senate, they're already talking. They've been talking through the whole process,' Bonnen explained. In fact, the other conferees are more symbolic and only provide a signature once an agreement has been made between the bill authors. Mark Strama, a former state lawmaker, and Bonnen both agreed they forgot they were conferees on a conference committee until they were asked to sign on to the final language of the bill. For a bill to pass out of conference committee it needs three signatures of approval from each coalition of conferees. It then goes back to each chamber for final approval from the full body. A majority of conference committees work just like that, but there are instances where legislation is significant enough that all members of the conference committee are contributing to the solution. One prime example is the appropriations bill, which funds the state over a two-year period. 'They're bigger issues. They're more significant. There's more volume to be dealt with,' Bonnen explained. This session, Bonnen believes the state's Compassionate Use Program (TCUP) is one of those bills that will need all hands on deck. Negotiations between the Senate and House have been ongoing for the past couple of weeks as the legislature moved to ban all hemp-derived intoxicants. There is a push to expand the TCUP to allow more people to be eligible for the medical cannabis program, and make it easier for patients to get their prescription. Strama also pointed out that conference committees can be used to revive bills that died either on the chamber floor or in committees. For the most part, conference committees are deciding between the differences in a House-approved and Senate-approved bill. But there is a procedure where the committee conferees could go out of bounds to add in additional provisions from other bills. It's known as going 'out of bounds.' To do this, the conference committee would have to go to each floor and ask for a resolution to go out of bounds. A majority of both chambers would need to approve that resolution. 'When you're out of power, you're looking for ways to stretch a conference committee report to extend to something to one of your bills that failed,' Strama said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Texas House votes to abolish Texas Lottery Commission; save Texas lottery
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Sunset review couldn't have come at a worse time for the Texas Lottery Commission (TLC). While TLC was listed by USA Today as one of the best places to work in 2025, in September it's likely no one will be working there. Sunset review is a process most state departments go through every 12 years. During a review, the legislature has to actively renew the department or they cease to exist. However in this case, the legislature is proactively killing the TLC. Saturday night, the Texas House passed an amended version of Senate Bill 3070, which abolishes the TLC and hands over control of the Texas Lottery and Charitable Bingo to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR). The decision comes amidst a host of scandals for the commission, resulting in investigations from both the Texas Rangers and the Attorney General's Office. While the Senate passed SB 3070 unanimously, House sponsor Charlie Geren, R-Lake Worth, re-wrote the bill based on conversations with TDLR. Each bill calls for the incoming Texas Lottery division of TDLR to undergo a sunset review to see how they're functioning under the new department. However, the Senate's version called for a full review in 2027, while the House calls for a review in 2029. Additionally, the scope of the House's proposed review is more narrowly-tailored to determine if TDLR is the best home for the lottery, and to determine if the lottery is following the guidelines set out by the legislature. Both versions call for lottery mobile applications to end, however the Texas House removed a provision from the Senate's version which required TDLR to post the minutes and guest list for all formal or informal meetings regarding contracting, procurement or policymaking of the lottery. The Senate added this language after a lawsuit alleged former TLC officials worked with courier services to brainstorm the best ways to implement lottery mobile applications. Geren's version also stripped a provision banning automatic renewals of contracts the TLC entered in before the transfer becomes official on Sept. 1. Most interestingly, the Texas House removed a provision allowing the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Speaker of the House or the Attorney General from acting as lottery investigators. The language was added to the Senate version after the retailer Winners Corner — affiliated with the mobile app Jackpocket — refused to let Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick inspect how many lottery terminals they had in their backroom. On Monday, the House will likely hear SB 3070 for a third reading. Should it pass there, it will be sent back to the Texas Senate where they can either agree to the changes or determine which disputed provisions should remain in the final bill. Either way, the elements both sides agree on will likely be sent to Gov. Greg Abbott to sign. If he signs, the lottery will have this summer to transition to TDLR before the TLC is abolished on Sept. 1. Because the TLC is up for sunset anyway, a Abbott veto would still mean the TLC is abolished on Sept. 1, but the Texas Lottery would go with it. 'Ensuring the integrity, security, honesty and fairness of the agency and its games is the top priority for the Texas Lottery Commission (TLC). The TLC respects the legislative process, serves as a resource to the Legislature, and will follow the direction of the Legislature,' a representative for the TLC said in a statement. 'The TLC is prepared to fully support the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation with ensuring that a smooth, seamless and successful transition occurs for both the administration of the lottery and the regulation of charitable bingo.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
House clears the way for Texas Lottery to continue under a different state agency
The Texas House on Sunday preliminarily voted to abolish the Texas Lottery Commission and transfer the state's game to another agency after a last-ditch effort to kill the game entirely failed. The fate of the 32-year-old lottery commission had been in limbo, as a routine state review requiring legislation to extend the game's existence had come concurrently with some lawmakers' calls to shut down the lottery entirely over allegations of wrongdoing. An alternative was presented earlier this month in an unusual late-session filing of Senate Bill 3070: let the Texas Lottery Commission die, and transfer game operations, including charitable bingo operations, to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The bill is now likely the lottery's only way forward, as neither of the two 'sunset' bills continuing the commission have been touched by lawmakers for months. Beyond the agency move, SB 3070 contains several other lottery regulations also proposed in other bills this session. Those new restrictions include a new ban on online lottery ticket sales with language almost identical to one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's legislative priorities, Senate Bill 28. It also sidesteps the lottery's final hurdle, its loss of funding after the House removed it from its next biennial budget proposal in April. That money would have needed to be returned to allow the agency to continue. Rep. Charlie Geren proposed a new 60-page version of the bill from the House floor, fine-tuning some of the proposed investigative tools the new lottery department would have to root out illegal sales. SB 3070 also contains a provision requiring the Sunset Advisory Commission to review the lottery's operations under its new agency before 2029 to determine whether it should continue. That deadline was originally in 2027 when the bill passed through the Senate unanimously on May 15, which Patrick described as a 'two-year lease on life' for the game. Before ultimately OK'ing the bill 110-29, House members struck down a proposal to end the lottery altogether, as Rep. Brent Money, R-Greenville, introduced an amendment to Geren's bill that would have abolished the game entirely in September. That amendment failed 71-58. Money called the lottery the 'most regressive tax' in Texas, and his supporters claimed the game unfairly preys on the poor and could not be run fairly in any capacity. 'The problem is, as a legislature, if we know an agency is corrupt, shouldn't we just abolish it?' Rep. Nate Schatzline, R-Fort Worth said during floor discussion on Sunday. The lottery has received significant criticism from lawmakers over two jackpots won under circumstances they say epitomize the commission's failure to oversee the game safely. In the first, a single group in April 2023 printed 99% of the 25.8 million possible ticket combinations — called a 'bulk purchase' — winning a $95 million jackpot. In another February win, a Texas woman bought the winning ticket, worth $83.5 million, through an online app known as a lottery courier. First reported by the Houston Chronicle, the 'bulk purchase' received national coverage after it was revealed that millions of tickets were printed at four different locations on dozens of lottery terminals provided specifically for the mass-ticket effort. A lottery courier was also involved in the bulk purchase, which comprised 99% of the 26 million possible ticket combinations for the jackpot, but did not sell the tickets through its online service. Couriers, who had been operating in Texas by printing physical tickets at retail stores they owned before scanning and sending digital copies to customers, would be banned under SB 3070's online ticket sale restrictions. The online services' operations became another point of contention between the lottery commission and lawmakers after the agency passed its own ban on couriers after it maintained for years it could not regulate them. That rule is currently being contested in court by a national courier company, The lottery commission's likely dissolution is just one part of the fallout from the controversial jackpots and concerns over couriers. A commissioner with the lottery resigned in February, followed by its executive director in April. The $83.5 million win has yet to be paid out, as Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Texas Rangers, a division of the Department of Public Safety, are still investigating both jackpots for potential illegal activity. The anonymous woman filed a lawsuit last week seeking to force the lottery commission to release her winnings. SB 3070 requires a final vote in the House and the Senate's approval of the House's changes before heading to Gov. Greg Abbott. The governor has largely remained silent on the lottery's fate outside of ordering the Texas Rangers to launch an investigation in February. The bill would take effect immediately if signed, as it received more than two-thirds majority vote in the House and a unanimous vote in the Senate. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
House clears the way for Texas Lottery to continue under a different state agency
The Texas House on Sunday preliminarily voted to abolish the Texas Lottery Commission and transfer the state's game to another agency after a last-ditch effort to kill the game entirely failed. The fate of the 32-year-old lottery commission had been in limbo, as a routine state review requiring legislation to extend the game's existence had come concurrently with some lawmakers' calls to shut down the lottery entirely over allegations of wrongdoing. An alternative was presented earlier this month in an unusual late-session filing of Senate Bill 3070: let the Texas Lottery Commission die, and transfer game operations, including charitable bingo operations, to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The bill is now likely the lottery's only way forward, as neither of the two 'sunset' bills continuing the commission have been touched by lawmakers for months. Beyond the agency move, SB 3070 contains several other lottery regulations also proposed in other bills this session. Those new restrictions include a new ban on online lottery ticket sales with language almost identical to one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's legislative priorities, Senate Bill 28. It also sidesteps the lottery's final hurdle, its loss of funding after the House removed it from its next biennial budget proposal in April. That money would have needed to be returned to allow the agency to continue. Rep. Charlie Geren proposed a new 60-page version of the bill from the House floor, fine-tuning some of the proposed investigative tools the new lottery department would have to root out illegal sales. SB 3070 also contains a provision requiring the Sunset Advisory Commission to review the lottery's operations under its new agency before 2029 to determine whether it should continue. That deadline was originally in 2027 when the bill passed through the Senate unanimously on May 15, which Patrick described as a 'two-year lease on life' for the game. Before ultimately OK'ing the bill 110-29, House members struck down a proposal to end the lottery altogether, as Rep. Brent Money, R-Greenville, introduced an amendment to Geren's bill that would have abolished the game entirely in September. That amendment failed 71-58. Money called the lottery the 'most regressive tax' in Texas, and his supporters claimed the game unfairly preys on the poor and could not be run fairly in any capacity. 'The problem is, as a legislature, if we know an agency is corrupt, shouldn't we just abolish it?' Rep. Nate Schatzline, R-Fort Worth said during floor discussion on Sunday. The lottery has received significant criticism from lawmakers over two jackpots won under circumstances they say epitomize the commission's failure to oversee the game safely. In the first, a single group in April 2023 printed 99% of the 25.8 million possible ticket combinations — called a 'bulk purchase' — winning a $95 million jackpot. In another February win, a Texas woman bought the winning ticket, worth $83.5 million, through an online app known as a lottery courier. First reported by the Houston Chronicle, the 'bulk purchase' received national coverage after it was revealed that millions of tickets were printed at four different locations on dozens of lottery terminals provided specifically for the mass-ticket effort. A lottery courier was also involved in the bulk purchase, which comprised 99% of the 26 million possible ticket combinations for the jackpot, but did not sell the tickets through its online service. Couriers, who had been operating in Texas by printing physical tickets at retail stores they owned before scanning and sending digital copies to customers, would be banned under SB 3070's online ticket sale restrictions. The online services' operations became another point of contention between the lottery commission and lawmakers after the agency passed its own ban on couriers after it maintained for years it could not regulate them. That rule is currently being contested in court by a national courier company, The lottery commission's likely dissolution is just one part of the fallout from the controversial jackpots and concerns over couriers. A commissioner with the lottery resigned in February, followed by its executive director in April. The $83.5 million win has yet to be paid out, as Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Texas Rangers, a division of the Department of Public Safety, are still investigating both jackpots for potential illegal activity. The anonymous woman filed a lawsuit last week seeking to force the lottery commission to release her winnings. SB 3070 requires a final vote in the House and the Senate's approval of the House's changes before heading to Gov. Greg Abbott. The governor has largely remained silent on the lottery's fate outside of ordering the Texas Rangers to launch an investigation in February. The bill would take effect immediately if signed, as it received more than two-thirds majority vote in the House and a unanimous vote in the Senate. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Texas bill clarifying when doctors can perform life-saving abortions wins early House vote
(The Texas Tribune) — The House voted 129-6 on Wednesday to preliminarily approve a bill to clarify Texas' near-total abortion ban, after it passed the Senate unanimously last month. Despite wide bipartisan support for the bill, some conservative lawmakers raised concerns about whether this would create a loophole allowing doctors to 'rubber stamp' otherwise prohibited abortions. Bill sponsor Rep. Charlie Geren, a Republican from Fort Worth, stressed that this was not a 'choice bill,' but rather an attempt to ensure the existing limits of the law are 'clear, consistent, fair and understandable.' 'We do not want women to die from medical emergencies during their pregnancy,' Geren said. 'We don't want women's lives to be destroyed because their bodies have been seriously impaired.' Texas banned all abortions three years ago, with a narrow exception that allows doctors to terminate a pregnancy only to save a pregnant patient's life. Immediately, doctors and legal experts warned that this exception was too narrow and vaguely written, and the penalties too severe, to ensure that women could get life-saving care. That has proven true in many cases. Dozens of women have come forward with stories of medically necessary abortions delayed or denied, and at least three women have died as a result of these laws. Faced with these stories, Republican lawmakers have conceded that the language of the law might need some clearing up. Senate Bill 31, also called the Life of the Mother Act, does not expand the exceptions or restore abortion access. It instead aims to clarify when a doctor can terminate a pregnancy under the existing exceptions by aligning language among the state's abortion laws, codifying court rulings and requiring education for doctors and lawyers on the nuances of the law. The bill was tightly negotiated among lobbyists for doctors and hospitals, anti-abortion groups and Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Bryan Hughes of Mineola, who authored the bill, and Geren. 'These groups don't always see eye to eye,' Geren said. 'But in this case, they worked together to ensure pregnant women with pregnancy complications get appropriate and timely care.' In the Senate, Republicans threw their support behind the bill, while Democrats pushed back on its narrowness, noting that Texas law still does not allow abortions in cases of rape, incest or lethal fetal anomalies. 'The folks who are working on this fix are, from my perspective, the folks who have created the problem,' said Houston Sen. Molly Cook. 'Over the past four years, we've watched women suffer and die, and this bill is the confirmation that we all agree that something is broken in Texas.' In the House, however, the bill faced headwinds from the right, as conservative Republicans rallied to the idea that this bill would allow doctors to resume elective abortions. Rep. Brent Money, a Greenville Republican, said he believed the laws were clear as written but there had been 'malicious interpretations' by pro-abortion doctors. 'People that want to promote abortion have tried to make it murky what our current law is,' Money said. 'And so my question is to you, is this law written to ensure that malicious actors won't be able to find loopholes to allow abortions that would not be allowed under our current law?' Geren touted his own perfect record of voting for every anti-abortion measure that's come before the House in his long career, and assured Money and his fellow conservatives that this was not an end-run around the laws. 'We are in no way promoting abortion on this,' Geren said, adding later that if a doctor were to abuse this clarification, they could face 99 years in prison and 'they would deserve it.' Many anti-abortion Republican women rallied to Geren's side, including Rep. Shelby Slawson, a Stephenville Republican who carried the bill in 2021 that led to Texas banning nearly all abortions. She framed this bill as just codifying the Legislature's original intent to protect the live's of pregnant women. They took the mic to offer up examples of times doctors should be allowed to terminate a pregnancy – in cases of cancer diagnoses, kidney failure, premature membrane rupture, ectopic pregnancies. But still, some Republicans were not appeased. Rep. Briscoe Cain, a Deer Park lawyer who has been involved in some of the state's most contentious abortion litigation, asked Geren if 'more or less babies will die' as a result of this bill. Geren conceded that by affirming that doctors can perform abortions to save a woman's life, it was possible more babies would die, although he noted that many women were traveling out-of-state to get the same medical care they were denied in Texas. Rep. Brian Harrison, a Midlothian Republican, said he was 'alarmed' to hear Geren's comments, and said it was the 'height of irresponsibility to tinker with these pro-life protections that have already saved countless lives.' Some doctors groups, including the Texas chapter of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, have criticized the bill for not going far enough to protect doctors and the patients they treat. Others say these changes will be sufficient to free doctors to perform medically necessary abortions without fear of lengthy prison sentences and massive fines. 'At the end of the day, our hope is that political differences can be set aside, because at the heart of this is a pregnant mother whose health and safety are on the line,' Texas Hospital Association president John Hawkins said in a statement. 'Hospitals and doctors need to be able to act on the medical facts and merits in front of them, without fear of prosecution. We sincerely believe this will have an immediate and positive impact, helping us provide life-saving care to our patients.' Despite the back-and-forth between Republican factions over the bill, it passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, with just six Republicans, including Harrison, voting no. Ten Republicans, including Cain and Money, declined to vote on the measure. The House also preliminarily approved Senate Bill 33 on Wednesday, which prohibits a city or county from using taxpayer dollars to pay for abortion-related expenses. The bill is aimed at Austin and San Antonio, where city officials have allocated budget dollars to support abortion funds that help pay for people to travel to abortion clinics out-of-state. Despite efforts from Democrats to kill the bill on procedural grounds, it passed 89-57. Disclosure: Texas Hospital Association has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
