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New York Times
17 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Justice Dept. Sues Texas Over Tuition Break for Undocumented Students
The Trump administration sued Texas on Wednesday over a two decade-old law that offers undocumented residents of the state the same discounted tuition as other in-state college applicants, arguing that the measure violates federal immigration law. The lawsuit came as a surprise given that the Republican-dominated state has been more than willing to cooperate with the Trump administration on its strict approach to immigration enforcement. The case was filed in the Northern District of Texas and carried a title more familiar to legal fights over immigration during the Biden administration: United States of America v. State of Texas. 'Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,' Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement, pledging that the Justice Department would 'ensure that U.S. citizens are not treated like second-class citizens.' How or whether Texas chooses to defend the law, the Texas Dream Act of 2001, is still uncertain. The state's Republican governor at the time, Rick Perry, championed the law and said during his failed 2012 presidential run that those who opposed it did not 'have a heart.' The party has moved considerably to the right on immigration since then. It now falls to Texas' hard-line conservative attorney general, Ken Paxton, to represent the state in the case, and it was not clear on Wednesday what his approach would be. Mr. Paxton is currently locked in a fierce campaign to unseat Senator John Cornyn in the state's Republican primary next year, based in large part on the attorney general's aggressive enforcement of immigration laws. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Justice Department sues Texas over in-state tuition for undocumented students
AUSTIN (KXAN) — The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against Texas on Wednesday over a state law that allows undocumented residents to pay in-state tuition at the state's public universities. By law, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office represents the state in cases involving the federal government. KXAN reached out to his office for a statement about the lawsuit. The lawsuit cites a 1996 federal law, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IRRIRA), as preempting the 2001 Texas Dream Act. As written, Texas' law allows undocumented immigrants residing in the state to access in-state tuition rates. Former Governor Rick Perry signed the Texas Dream Act, a decision that later served to derail his presidential ambitions in 2012. '[Texas] had a choice to make economically: Are you going to put these people in a position of having to rely upon government to take care of themselves, or are you going to let them be educated and be contributing members of society, obviously working towards their citizenship,' said Perry in 2001, according to a 2015 report by The Texas Tribune. However, US Attorney General Pam Bondi's framing of the IRRIRA argues this is a public benefit that isn't accessible to other US citizens residing outside of Texas. The lawsuit calls the Texas Dream Act 'a blatant violation: 'Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,' Bondi said. 'The Justice Department will relentlessly fight to vindicate federal law and ensure that U.S. citizens are not treated like second-class citizens anywhere in the country.' The lawsuit is in the Northern District Court of Texas, home to a few judges favored by Paxton and other Texas Conservatives. It has not yet been assigned to a judge. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
TxLege data: How long do sessions last and how many bills are typically passed?
This story is part of the KXAN Data Hub, where numbers help tell the whole created several data-driven stories and databases on topics including weather and climate, politics, education, sports and growth in Texas. Each story in the KXAN Data Hub is updated as new data becomes available. AUSTIN (KXAN) — Each legislative session, thousands of bills are filed by state lawmakers, but how many actually become law? And how long does each session typically last? KXAN dug through the legislative archives to find out. As seen in the chart below, the number of bills filed each legislative session has grown tremendously. In the 27th, 28th and 29th sessions, in the early 1900s, fewer than 1,000 House and Senate bills were filed by state lawmakers. That compares to the more than 8,700 filed so far in the current Legislative session. As of May 13, a total of 5,644 House bills and 3,072 Senate bills have be filed by the current legislature. Of course, not every bill is passed. In the 88th Legislative Session, in 2023, a total of 8,616 bills were filed by state lawmakers in the regular session and four subsequent special sessions. Of those, 1,252 were passed, about 14.5% of all bills filed. Gov. Abbott vetoed 76 bills, according to online legislative statistics. When averaging the last 10 full sessions, lawmakers typically file about 6,890 bills, of which roughly 1,350 are passed — about 19.6% of the total. This session, lawmakers have passed 165 bills as of May 13, about 1.9% of the total. The legislature meets every two years, in odd-numbered years. Since the 1960s, regular sessions have lasted for 140 days. Before then, they ranged from as short as 45 days in 1863 to 177 days in 1949. By state law, special sessions can last a maximum of 30 days, but the governor has the power to call as many special sessions as they want. The record came in the 71st Legislative Session, in 1989 and 1990. Gov. Bill Clements called a total of six special sessions. Since the first legislative session in 1846, there have been an average of 1.5 special sessions for each legislature. The 12th Legislative Session was the longest in state history, at 353 days in total. That session included a 17-day 'provisional' session in February 1870, so Texas could ratify the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Just because a bill passes both the House and Senate, doesn't mean it will become law. The governor has the power to veto bills. An average of 28 bills are vetoed each legislative cycle. The 12th Legislature, in 1870-71, saw the most vetoes in state history. Gov. Edmund J. Davis vetoed a total of 123 bills, 83 of which were in special sessions. When only looking at regular sessions, a record 83 bills were vetoed by Rick Perry in the 77th Legislature, in 2001. Gov. Greg Abbott's 76 vetoes in the most recent regular session ranks second. The two Republicans also rank first and second when it comes to total vetoes during their time in office. Rick Perry vetoed almost 300 bills between 2001 and 2013. Abbott has vetoed almost 250 as of May 12, 2025. William P. Clements, Edmund J. Davis and Daniel J. Moody, Jr. are the only other governors to have vetoed more than 100 bills while in office. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New York Times
17-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Fired, Then Unfired, National Nuclear Security Administration Employees. What Were Their Jobs?
When termination letters were sent to employees across the federal government last week, the Trump administration affected an agency charged with the readiness of America's nuclear arsenal. The move also shined a spotlight on the agency, the National Nuclear Security Administration, which few Americans likely think of often, if ever, but has a monumental responsibility. Here's a rundown of what the obscure agency does and the potential reasons that the Trump administration had to quickly adjust some of the firings: What is the agency's mission? The National Nuclear Security Administration maintains, refurbishes and keeps safe the United States' more than 3,000 nuclear warheads. It also supervises the production of new nuclear warheads. It has a $25 billion annual budget and more than 57,000 employees. Congress also put the agency in charge of thwarting nuclear proliferation, researching and developing nuclear propulsion systems for submarines and directing national laboratories that provide key scientific and engineering knowledge for the U.S. nuclear weapons system. Those laboratories include the historical Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where the top secret Manhattan Project took place during World War II. To what department does it belong? Confusingly, despite its long-held, pivotal role in the military's defense strategy, the agency sits within the Department of Energy, rather than the Department of Defense. In 2017, after accepting the offer to serve as energy secretary in the first Trump administration, Rick Perry was bewildered that the job entailed supervising the maintenance and production of the most fearsome weapons in the world. What happened last week? On Thursday, about 300 probationary employees at the nuclear security agency were fired, according to people familiar with the matter. A spokesperson for the Energy Department disputed those numbers, saying fewer than 50 people at the agency had been fired and most had administrative and clerical roles. On Friday night, at least some of the laid-off staff members at the agency were told to come back to their jobs, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the firings. NBC News reported that the agency struggled to reach out to some employees that it wanted to reinstate, unable to find contact information for those workers after they were shut off from their federal government email accounts. Why is this a critical time for the agency? The agency is trying to modernize the rapidly aging U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal. As of 2024, the N.N.S.A. was carrying out seven warhead modernization programs for the Defense Department. The New York Times reported last year that the U.S. military was expected to spend roughly $1.7 trillion to overhaul the nuclear weapons infrastructure and warheads that were designed and built several decades prior. That means the agency is overseeing the research, development, testing, design, production and maintenance of new nuclear warheads and the updated infrastructure they require. In 2024, the N.N.S.A. administrator at the time, Jill Hruby, said that her agency was 'being asked to do more than at any time since the Manhattan Project.' The Defense Department's nuclear modernization programs depend on N.N.S.A.'s ability to provide nuclear warheads 'in a timely manner,' Anya L. Fink, an analyst for U.S. defense policy, said in a recent report to Congress. Why were the job losses a concern? Congress has expressed concerns around work force recruitment and retention issues at the N.N.S.A. In April 2024, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm testified to Congress that attrition of skilled employees at the agency remained high because of long hours and fierce competition for talent from the private sector. Several government reports that year highlighted staffing challenges across the agency and among its contractors that produce nuclear warhead components. The Government Accountability Office, a watchdog agency, estimated that by fiscal 2026 the N.N.S.A would be 200 positions below the level deemed necessary without a remedy. 'We are facing high demand at a moment where our enterprise is not well positioned to meet it,' Ms. Hruby, the former administrator, said in a speech delivered four days before President Trump's inauguration.
Axios
12-02-2025
- Business
- Axios
New York Stock Exchange to open Dallas office
The New York Stock Exchange is expanding to Y'all Street. The latest: The NYSE announced Wednesday that it plans to move its fully electronic Chicago exchange to Dallas. Why it matters: Dallas has emerged as a financial hub as stock markets and companies have sought to cash in on Texas' wealth. Gov. Greg Abbott said he met with the stock exchange's leadership on Monday and looks forward to expanding Texas' "financial might" in the U.S. and globally. The big picture: NYSE Texas will rival the Dallas-based Texas Stock Exchange, which was announced last year. The two stock exchanges join Nasdaq, which opened a Texas office in 2013, per the DMN. Nasdaq announced last year that it was establishing a new division at its Irving office to oversee over 480 clients in Texas, the southern U.S. and Latin America. Context: The Texas Stock Exchange filed for registration last month with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after raising $161 million in initial capital. The exchange plans to start trading in 2026. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Dallas Fed president Richard Fisher are on the exchange's leadership team. Between the lines: Companies and organizations frustrated with what they view as an anti-business atmosphere in other states have been increasingly drawn to Texas. What they're saying: Texas has the largest number of NYSE listings among all of the U.S. states, representing $3.7 trillion in market value, NYSE Group president Lynn Martin said in a statement. "Texas is a market leader in fostering a pro-business atmosphere," Martin said. Zoom out: Texas has one of the strongest economies in the U.S. The state's GDP was around $2.7 trillion in 2024, higher than Canada's. "We have known all along that Texas is the best place to do business," the TXSE said in a statement in response to the NYSE announcement. What's next: The move isn't official until the NYSE files for reincorporation.
