Earlier this week the Texas Legislature approved a property tax relief plan that will increase the state's homestead exemption to $100,000, provide across the board rate relief, and add a temporary cap on appraisal increases for some non-homesteaded properties. During the 88th Legislative Session, I filed HB 3205 to raise the homestead exemption. I’m grateful the majority is running with my idea, which will directly reduce the tax bills of Hays County homeowners by over $600. Compression will provide additional relief as well.

I’ve spent about half my day talking Texas State students through how to cast a limited ballot. It’s a confusing process that would be mostly unnecessary if we had online voter registration or completely unneeded if we had same-day voter registration. 🧵 These students have to drive or get a ride to a government building well away from campus to cast a “limited ballot” (generally just for the statewide races, not locals) instead of being able to vote right on campus with the other students.

People getting so worked up over drag shows that are much less sexy than a dance number from Grease.

There are different standards for what constitutes “explicit” for LGBTQ folks and straight cisfolks. The standards are even more disparate when the LGBTQ folks aren’t white. When you see outrage about drag queen performances, ask yourself, what would their reaction be if you subbed in Olivia Newton John? If it’s fine for Olivia, it’s fine for everyone.

The outrage isn’t about LGBTQ people being too sexual. It’s about them just *being*.

Today is National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

I am wearing Orange—the color hunters wear to tell people not to shoot—to honor the victims of gun violence and to demand bold action. The boldest action we could take is to elect @BetoORourke as Texas Governor. #EndGunViolenceNow People keep asking me if X or Y policy to fight gun violence is possible.

The answer is short: Nothing is possible without dedicated and determined organization and action. Everything is possible with it. Gov. Abbott has made his stance clear. He’ll deflect and then do nothing.

Good article, but it’s missing one piece of the problem. SB 6, which banned most use of medication abortion in Texas, doesn’t even have an exception for when the pregnant person’s life is in danger.

What does that mean for patients?

npr.org/sections/healt… It means if they present at the hospital with ruptured membranes (broken water) too early to deliver safely, their fetus has no chance of survival. If the miscarriage doesn’t progress on it’s own, they’re at risk of sepsis and death. The standard treatment is medication abortion.

🧵 Alright, apparently I’m climbing on this soapbox. Two points, that at first glance may seem contradictory:

1. Rs knocking and Ds not knocking did hurt us

2. Knocking them during COVID pre-vaccine wouldn’t necessarily have helped us though.

Let me elaborate.

https://twitter.com/rebekahallen/status/1481277938762985475

There is no replacement for direct voter contact, and the best form is at someone’s door. In 2020, Dems didn’t just *choose* to not do doors. We lost the ability to do it effectively, because a huge proportion of our voters were not comfortable with us being at their doorstep.

🧵 I’m thinking about a friend today who told me a few months ago that she and her husband were talking about another baby.

But she’d heard about the SB 8, the six week abortion ban, and was frightened.

“What if something goes wrong with my pregnancy?” #SB8 #txlege Her fear was something would go wrong and she wouldn’t have access to a termination. She has significant pre-existing health issue and strong feelings about not carrying a nonviable pregnancy to term.

I talked her through how SB 8 would impact various scenarios.

Senate Bill 15 has passed the House. Though I voted for this bill, it's not the right tool to fund virtual learning in emergency situations. It limits virtual learners to less than 10% of a school's population and requires that all virtual learners take the STAAR test. The governor and Texas Education Agency should have provided a fully funded virtual option months ago when schools had time to prepare and stand up programs. This bill is too little too late.

🧵 “If you like masks, then nothing’s stop you from wearing one. Just don’t make anyone else.”

What’s wrong with this argument?

Well let’s think about it in terms of an earlier, much simpler and now universally respected public health measure.

Designated latrines. The idea is pretty simple, and we all take it for granted now.

There are appropriate places to 💩 and there inappropriate places. Appropriate places are segmented away from other activity, particularly eating, and located somewhere that (hopefully) won’t impact water sources.

🧵There's a lie going around right now that unless Texas House Democrats go to the floor and pass a bill, funding for virtual learning can't be available to school districts. I want to be very clear: this a lie, a lie that Governor Abbott is pushing to avoid accountability for his own refusal to protect Texas students -- both from COVID-19 itself and the learning disruptions school outbreaks cause.

🧵 I’m going to give y’all more details about all the reasons this is disastrous, but first I need to calm down.

I. Am. Furious.

This is bad and directly deviates from some of the CDC recommendations. #txlege

https://twitter.com/wfaa/status/1423418544767787017

Let’s go through section by section. Here’s the TEA guidance for school reopening.

So the governor is making COVID an emergency item....while saying we can’t do any of the things that actually work to contain COVID.

Can we say set up to fail? 🤦🏼‍♀️

Can we say catering to primary voters? 🤦🏼‍♀️

PS the governor’s emergency powers allow him to address COVID. #txlege Forgot the image.

🧵 I represent a toss up district. 49.5% of the people I represent trust Governor Abbott more than me.

My office and I have done mask distributions, helped set up testing, phonebanked to get info out about vaccines. We brainstorm every week on how to reach more folks. Cases in Hays County have increased more than 8 fold in the last month. Hospitalizations have shot up in our region. I’m hearing from panicked parents about sending their kids back to school. I’m hearing from folks angry and frustrated that they got vaccinated but others didn’t.

Hey y'all--come on out testify at the Capitol TOMORROW against House Bill 3--the bill that's trying to erode the freedom to vote here in Texas. Public testimony is so important in this process, and we need your help. The House hearing is at 8am and the Senate's is at 11am. Never testified before? No worries! To sign up to provide in-person oral or written testimony, visit hwrs.house.texas.gov. This link ONLY WORKS when on Capitol WIFI. You can also go inside to use a Capitol kiosk (locations here: mytxlegis.capitol.texas.gov/hwrspublic/abo…) to sign up.

Today, I filed HB 118, which would allow Texas college students to vote using their student IDs. This is the 3rd time I've filed this bill--earlier this year, it was voted out of the elections committee and set on the last day of the calendar, but it never made it to the floor. This bill will help remove barriers to voting for college students. The only reason to not allow these students to use their student IDs for voting is if you don’t want young people to vote. Other forms of state ID are accepted, including concealed carry licenses.

We’re starting the Special Session with a rally to protect the freedom to vote. Thanks Black Votes Matter for organizing! #LetTexansVote #BlackVotesMatter Have to shout out @RepToniRoseTX’s comment on the “critical race theory” bill to gag teacher’s from teaching about racism and current events.

“If black kids have to experience racism, then white kids can learn about it.”

Thread: Let's talk about the grid and the current @ERCOT_ISO conservation notice.

1st off: #ERCOT's current conservation notice is this:

Conserve electricity during peak hours, most importantly 3pm to 7pm.

This conservation notice will remain in effect through at least Friday. For my family, this means our thermostat is set at 80, the lights are off unless we absolutely need them, we're not using large appliances, and we unplugged most of our other appliances.

All of this things save energy and help make sure our demand doesn't exceed supply.

🧵 So let’s talk about what happened HB 3979, the “critical race theory” bill yesterday.

I put it in quotes because no one behind this legislation seems to know what critical race theory is.

Yesterday, @jamestalarico and I argued a point of order that sent it back the Senate. Big thanks to @RepMaryGonzalez who found the point of order and unfortunately was unable to be on the floor to call it.

This type of point usually kills a bill, but the Senate did use an unusual parliamentary move to keep the bill alive, and it is on its way to the Governor.

All session I’ve heard from folks that they want to pass anti-trans legislation because they believe it will protect women and children.

Well, since we beat those bills, some of those same folks are now killing two bill guaranteed to protect them: HB 133 and HB 290. #txlege HB 133 by @RepToniRoseTX would extend Medicaid coverage for pregnant women to a year after delivery, instead of 60 days. Half of all postpartum deaths occur more than 50 days postpartum. Half of all Texas births are covered by Medicaid. This bill would save the lives of new moms.

I’m still reeling from HB 1399 being voted out of committee hours after our hearing and before the virtual testimony portal was closed.

This bill attacks transgender youth. Brave children stood up and spoke their truths, but the bill was still voted on party lines. #txlege 1/ No matter how many times the proponents say that this bill is about protecting children, it’s not. This bill is about removing options to affirming care that is widely accepted by medical experts because of prejudice and fear of those who are different. 2/

The Texas Department of State Health Services has asked the state’s vaccine providers to pause the administration of the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine, in line with guidance from the CDC and the FDA. 1/5 This pause is following reports of blood clots in six individuals. The J&J vaccine has been administered nearly 7 million times in the United States, so these adverse events appear to be extremely rare and are being further evaluated to ensure vaccine safety. 2/5