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Good morning, 

This is the Texas Minute for Thursday, January 16, 2025.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

New Speaker Delays House Rules Debate to Latest Date Since '09

• After being installed as speaker by Democrats and a minority of Republicans, Dustin Burrows is leading the Texas House off to an unhurried start, with the rules debate not being scheduled until over a week into the session. As Brandon Waltens reports, the House rules govern the operations of the chamber.
        
• More attention has been placed on the debate over the rules in recent years, however, due to proposals to ban Democrats from holding chairmanships. In 2021, House members overwhelmingly voted down a proposal to end chairmanships for the minority party. In 2023, after Republican activists showed up to the Capitol, then-Speaker Dade Phelan did not even allow a vote on the issue, which has become a priority of the Republican Party of Texas.
       
• During his campaign for the speakership, Burrows attempted to avoid the issue altogether by saying the House would have the opportunity to decide whether Democrats should be given chairmanships (though he refused to say that he wouldn’t appoint them himself if such a rule was not passed).
        
• In recent legislative sessions, House members have voted on the rules during the first few days of the session. Yesterday, Burrows announced he intends to wait until next Wednesday, January 22. The last time the rules were voted on this late was in 2009, the first session of former Speaker Joe Straus.

State Senator Proposes University Degrees Be Reviewed for Economic Value

• Under a proposal filed in the Texas Senate, state colleges and universities would be required to assess the economic value of their degree programs every five years. Valerie Muñoz reports the new law, if adopted, would evaluate program graduates’ median student loan debt relative to the median annual earnings. The programs would fall into one of four economic value categories.
        
• Legislation by State Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston) would "sunset" programs with debt-to-earnings ratios of over 125 percent.
       
• Degree programs with a debt-to-earnings ratio of 75 percent or less would be rated as “reward” programs, while those with a performance ratio of more than 75 percent—but not exceeding 100 percent—would be considered programs to "monitor." A "sanction"-rated program would be those with a debt-to-earnings ratio of more than 100 percent.

Texas Completes 1.5-Mile Border Wall in Starr County

• Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham announced on Wednesday the completion of a 1.5-mile stretch of border wall along the Rio Grande. Emily Medeiros reports the construction has been on a ranch in Starr County that was purchased by the state in October 2024.
       
• The area, located in U.S. Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Sector, has seen the greatest number of illegal alien crossings.

UPDATE: Former Russian Mercenary Will Likely Be Used for Intelligence Until Deportation

• Russian mercenary Timur Praliev, who was apprehended by American immigration authorities on Jan. 4 after crossing the Rio Grande, is likely being used for intelligence gathering prior to his eventual removal from the country. Will Biagini reports that assertion comes from a former ICE agent.
       
• A native of Kazakhstan, Praliev was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents after he waded across the Rio Grande near the city of Roma in Starr County. He was carrying wads of both American and Mexican cash, two passports—one from Kazakhstan and one from Russia—and, most disturbingly, a drone in his backpack.
         
• Former ICE Special Agent Victor Avila believes Praliev will be interviewed by different federal officials “for one reason: intel purposes.”

Harris County Commissioners Court Attendance Sparks Debate

• Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo is pushing back against an accusation that she is an absent county judge after having reportedly missed more than a third of meetings in 2024. Charles Blain has the details.
   

• Houston’s KPRC2 broke the story after reviewing last year’s Commissioners Court meetings and noting that Hidalgo was absent for 36 percent of the meetings last year.
       

• Hidalgo said the investigation fails to consider that many of those were "less-than-five minute meetings." Two of the meetings were missed, she said, because of her honeymoon.

Quote-Unquote

"I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within."

– Douglas MacArthur​

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