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Good morning,

When I last floated on the Dead Sea, I couldn't help but think about the irony. Surrounded by a desert, I knew drinking these waters would be sickening at best. Yet, as I reflect on below, it won't always be that way.

This is the Texas Minute for Friday, February 21, 2025.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Houston NGOs Lay Off Workers as White House Halts Funding to Illegal Aliens

• Hundreds of employees at two Houston-area charities are being laid off now that the Trump administration has blocked payments to programs providing services to illegal aliens. Joseph Trimmer has the details.
    
• Catholic Charities and the YMCA were providing services to illegal aliens paroled into the country by the Biden administration. Now, with the Trump administration cutting off those funds, both organizations are having to scale back operations.
       
• According to federal records, the Houston chapter of Catholic Charities received $11.1 million in federal tax dollars in 2024.
      
• Experts have long argued that subsidy programs for illegal aliens served as an incentive for more to enter the United States to get benefits not available to citizens and legal residents.
       
• It is estimated that 481,000 illegal aliens live in Harris County. It is believed there are up to 2.1 million illegal aliens living in Texas.

Poll Shows Strong Support for School Choice as Bill Filed in House

• School choice legislation has been filed in the Texas House, setting up another battle over Gov. Greg Abbott’s top priority as new polling shows a majority of Texans support the issue. Brandon Waltens has the story.
    
• Back in 2023, school choice was blocked in the House after a coalition of Democrats and a minority of Republicans opposed it. Since then, many of those Republican opponents have been replaced after Abbott actively campaigned against them in last year’s primaries.
       
• A new WPA Intelligence poll conducted for Club for Growth suggests broad public support for school choice in Texas. The survey, conducted last week, found that 56 percent of Texas voters support establishing an Education Savings Account program, 36 percent are opposed, and 8 percent are undecided.
   
• While the Senate has already advanced out of its chamber legislation (SB 2) creating a school choice program, a slightly different version (HB 3) was filed in the Texas House yesterday. 
        
• For example, under SB 2 those students attending private schools could receive a flat $10,000 per year. HB 3 calculates ESA funding at 85 percent of the state’s per-student public school funding, translating to approximately $8,000–$10,000 per student.
        
• Both chambers have tentatively included $1 billion for the program in their preliminary budget drafts, meaning the first year of a program—regardless of whether it is SB 2 or HB 3—would likely accommodate around 100,000 students.

Records Reveal Lawmakers’ Taxpayer-Funded News Sources

• Recent reports have exposed that millions in federal tax dollars have been funneled into national and international news organizations, raising concerns over journalistic independence and government influence. Likewise, state agencies in Texas have directed millions toward left-leaning publications.
     
• A new analysis of state documents finds members of the Texas House have also been using taxpayer dollars to subsidize media operations. For example, the leftwing Quorum Report received approximately $60,000 over the last 13 months from 87 offices.
       
• The 10 publications most funded by legislators' offices include Quorum Report, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Capitol Inside, San Antonio Express-News, The Texan, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and Texas Tribune.
      
• To preserve our independence, Texas Scorecard refuses to accept any funding from any government agencies or out of any tax-funded coffers. We rely exclusively on our readers for our financial support.

Texas Lottery Vendor IGT Sued Alongside Lottery.com and Former Director

• Longtime lottery watchdog Dawn Nettles has sued the former executive director of the Texas Lottery, the vendor responsible for administering the lottery, and Lottery.com for fraud. Daniel Greer reports that the lawsuit comes just a week after members of the Texas Senate slammed the Texas Lottery as a money laundering operation. 

Senator Seeks Again to Ban Taxpayer-funded Lobbying

• Once again, State Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston) has filed legislation to ban taxpayer-funded lobbying. Will Biagini has more information.
    
• The senator wants to restrict political subdivisions from using public funds to hire individuals required to register as lobbyists. The ban would also include any nonprofit organization "that primarily represents political subdivisions," such as cities, counties, and school districts. As Middleton explained, lobbying groups—like the Texas Association of School Boards—operate on public funds.
      
• Middleton has been fighting to ban taxpayer-funded lobbying since his days as a member of the Texas House.
       
• Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has designated the issue as one of his own priorities for the 2025 legislative session.

Attorney General’s Office and 2 Counties Join ICE’s Reinstated Task Force Model

• Along with the Office of the Attorney General, Smith and Goliad counties have signed on to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency's Task Force Model. As Ian Camacho reports, this program allows ICE to collaborate with local law enforcement to identify and remove illegal aliens.
      
• The ICE Task Force Model was discontinued in 2012 under the Obama administration. President Donald Trump reinstated the program with an executive order on his first day in office last month. Since then, a growing number of law enforcement agencies have officially joined the program, while others' applications are being reviewed.
       
• Smith County's sheriff said he is concerned most sheriffs around the state may not know about the newly revamped Task Force Model or how the enrollment process works.

UT Austin Names Interim President

• Following Jay Hartzell’s resignation as president of the University of Texas at Austin, the UT System Board of Regents has appointed the university’s chief operating officer, Jim Davis, as interim president. As Valerie Muñoz reports, Hartzell stepped down to take the presidency at Southern Methodist University.
    
• Davis worked under Attorney General Ken Paxton for nearly four years before becoming UT's vice president of legal affairs in late 2018. Since 2023, Davis has been the institution's senior vice president and chief operating officer.

This Sunday on REAL TEXANS

MICHELLE EVANS

Friday Reflection
Dead Seas and Living Waters

It’s really hard to drown in the Dead Sea—not impossible, but hard. The hyper-saline waters have been a tourist attraction for thousands of years. The extreme buoyancy is fun and relaxing for those with the opportunity to enjoy it.

After just a few minutes soaking in the Dead Sea water, though, you realize you need a bath. It’s fun but not fulfilling. It’s relaxing but not cleansing.

But it is worse than that. Situated in the middle of a desert, the Dead Sea is a taunt; drinking its water will kill you as surely as having nothing to drink at all.

Ironically, the Dead Sea is fed by the life-giving waters of the Jordan River. Until very recently, the Jordan River provided Israel with most of its drinking and irrigation sources. As the water moves from the Sea of Galilee through the desert, it picks up various minerals. Over time, the geological features conspired to trap the water and minerals, creating an inland sea hostile to life.

It is a fitting analogy to life as we experience it. Life, which God called good, now runs inevitably to death. It wasn’t supposed to be that way; we were made to live, not die. Death is an unnatural state in the original design of our Creator.

This is a hard truth. For every person who has ever lived and died, the ultimate cause of death is sin.

Fortunately, the same God who created us has created a way around death.

You see, scripture tells us death isn’t permanent, not for the Dead Sea and not for believers. Ezekiel prophesied a day when “swarms of living creatures will live” in the Dead Sea waters.

About halfway between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, and a little to the west, is what in ancient times was Samaria. That’s where Jesus met a woman at a well.

As their conversation unfolded, He told her: “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Through Jesus, we who are dead are offered living water; He cleanses our sins and gives us eternal life. Eventually, through Him, all things in creation will be freed from the “inevitability” of death.

The day is coming when the Dead Sea waters won’t be as buoyant, but they will be refreshing. All creation will sing for joy, and life will be everlasting and abundant.

Quote-Unquote

"Joy is the serious business of Heaven."

– C.S. Lewis