AUSTIN, Texas – The 89th Texas Legislative Session is now underway, with lawmakers officially sworn in and a new Speaker elected. Already, legislators have introduced more than 2,500 bills, setting the stage for a busy few months ahead.
As committees begin reviewing the proposed bills, Texas lawmakers are hard at work on legislation aimed at addressing key issues affecting the state.
KPRC 2’s Rilwan Balogun caught with two Houston-area lawmakers—Senator Borris L. Miles (D-Houston) and Senator Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston)—to learn more about their priorities for this legislative session.
Affordable Housing and Protection for Vulnerable Texans
Senator Borris L. Miles has a number of key goals for the session, including expanding affordable housing for seniors, strengthening protections for group homes, and addressing childcare challenges in the state. He’s hoping to accomplish some or all through bipartisanship.
“You know, for 18 years now, Rilwan I’ve been serving and never serving in the majority, always served in the minority,” Miles said. “But some kind of way. I’ve always found a way to deliver back home for our people.”
In addition to these priorities, Senator Miles is advocating for an issue that he has been passionate about for years—undergrounding power lines to help protect communities during severe weather events. After the devastation caused by Hurricane Beryl, Miles is co-authoring Senate Bill 270 to explore the feasibility of burying power lines, a measure he’s long supported.
“I live in the Third Ward area, and all of our fiber optic lines are in my backyard or right by our fence line over my pool,” he said. ”I’ve been preaching for the last 15 years to look into putting all these lines underground. That’s something I’ll be pushing hard.”
As CenterPoint made improvements following Beryl, Miles said it doesn’t eliminate the electric company’s culpability.
“I’m not accepting any excuses,” Miles said. “This is the session we’ve got we have to get it done…We’ve got to be ready for a coal spell or, you know, or a heat wave. And it’s just that time and I don’t mean in just suburban areas, but all throughout Houston, especially the areas that had to do the most suffering during this last freeze.”
Tax Relief and Special Education Reform
Senator Paul Bettencourt, meanwhile, has set his sights on tax relief and special education reform. One of his key priorities is increasing the homestead exemption for homeowners and providing business tax relief.
On the education front, Bettencourt is focused on reforming the state’s special education system. He has been working on a bill aimed at improving services for special needs students, one that has already passed out of the Senate several times.
“What we’re doing is creating a new funding model for special education,” Bettencourt explained. “It provides hundreds of millions of dollars of funding, but we’re also putting it into an intensity model.”
The goal is to improve early intervention for special needs children by ensuring they receive proper evaluations and support. Bettencourt emphasized the importance of evaluating students early in school and funding those evaluations, which he believes will help guide effective interventions for children with special needs.
With more than 2,500 bills on the table, lawmakers face a challenging session ahead. Over the course of the next 140 days, legislators will work to pass a two-year state budget and consider hundreds of pieces of legislation on issues ranging from healthcare and education to infrastructure and tax policy.
