On Thursday, March 10, Republican Speaker of the Texas House Dade Phelan announced what policies will be priorities for the 2023 legislative session.
Because Texas lawmakers only meet in Austin for 140 days every other year, the Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker of the House give their members assignments to work on during non-legislative years, known as interim charges.
During the non-legislative year, lawmakers hold hearings for the public and invite others for testimony, research the topics they are assigned, and complete reports that are taken into consideration when bills are created during the session.
The interim charges from Phelan give Texans an idea of what issues will be prioritized in the House during the next legislative session.
Some of Phelan’s interim charges include evaluating the state’s power grid, property tax appraisal reform, overdose deaths, and opioid addiction.
Phelan charges include the assessment of various energy-related topics, such as weatherizing power generators and natural gas suppliers, bolstering Texas’ oil and gas production, expanding natural gas underground storage capacity, and minimizing congestion in the electricity transmission system.
Another interim charge is to evaluate the “delays and inaccuracies” of election results reporting. This comes after the Harris County election snafu that left out 10,000 votes during the March 1 primary.
The Texas House Elections Committee, chaired by Representative Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park), is assigned to evaluate the poll watcher training program. The program was created by Texas’ recent elections bill, which passed during the second special session in 2021.
Cain’s committee will also be tasked with creating “recommendations to ensure that election results are reported in a timely and accurate manner following the closing of the polls.”
Phelan also wants to focus on public education and students’ learning loss during the pandemic’s school closures. One of his interim charges directs the House to “study the effects of COVID-19 on K-12 learning loss and best practices that exist to address learning loss.”
Phelan also tasked some committees with evaluating Texas’ ties to Russia, whether financial, commercial, or otherwise, due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar was already researching how much of the state’s finances are tied to Russian assets or companies before the interim charges were announced.
Phelan’s interim charges also prioritize underfunded state pensions. The state’s top two pension systems, the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) and the Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS), are reportedly each underfunded by more than $30,000 per member.
TRS is only 75% funded, while ERS is only 66% funded, meaning that it can only account for 66 cents of every dollar promised to its members.
Phelan assigned the evaluation of these and other state pension systems to the Committee on Pensions, Investments, and Financial Services.
In the same announcement, Phelan announced the creation of two new House committees focused on reforming the state’s health care and criminal justice systems.
The House Interim Study Committee on Criminal Justice Reform will be chaired by Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Plano). Meanwhile, the House Select Committee on Health Care Reform will be chaired by Rep. Sam Harless (R-Spring).
The new health care committee will consist of eleven members and study the effects of “excessive” health care costs on Texans and the Texas Medicaid and private health insurance market.
“These charges touch on the most pressing issues facing Texans, from improving the quality and safety of our state’s foster care system to confronting our state’s growing infrastructure demands,” Phelan said in a news release.
“As House committees formally kick off their work for the interim, I’m confident that their research and recommendations on these topics will position our chamber to tackle these priorities in an effective and productive manner once the Legislature convenes in January,” he asserted.
Shortly after Phelan announced the initial round of interim charges, he added one more to the list.
News broke Thursday evening that a Bastrop facility serving underage victims of sex trafficking is under investigation by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. The investigation, prompted by sexual and physical abuse allegations against the facility, has already resulted in one staff member’s arrest.
“Unacceptable & nauseating. Under the interim charges my office issued earlier today, the House will begin to hold hearings on this issue ASAP. I’ve reached out to @RepJamesFrank & we agree action must be taken. We must do everything in our power to stop this kind of evil,” Phelan wrote on Twitter.