Good morning,

As defined by the state constitution, the 89th Regular Session of the Texas Legislature ends today. For this week's One Click Survey, we'd like you to grade the lawmakers' overall performance.

This is the Texas Minute for Monday, June 2, 2025.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Sine Die

• You'll hear people in and around the Texas Legislature refer to today as "sine die." Literally, that Latin phrase means "without a day."
        
• For the rest of us, it translates as "they're likely to leave us alone for 589 days."
      
• The next gathering of the Texas Legislature, barring the governor calling a special session, is noon on Tuesday, January 12, 2027.

Texas Legislature Approves Record-High State Budget

• On Saturday, the House and Senate gave final approval to the state's budget: the largest in Texas history, spending more than $338 billion. The biennial budget takes effect on Sept. 1, 2025, and runs through August 31, 2027.
        
• As Brandon Waltens reports, this budget represents an 8.3 percent increase over the last biennium and a staggering 43 percent increase since the 2022–23 budget. Significantly, lawmakers entered the session with a $24 billion surplus. Only $6.5 billion of the surplus is being used for new property tax relief, even as property taxes have risen $13 billion (21.6 percent) since the last biennium.
       

• The budget now goes to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature.

SCOTX Clears Path for A.G. To Investigate Illegal Alien Shelter

• On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that Attorney General Ken Paxton can investigate and seek judicial remedies against Annunciation House, a Catholic non-profit that operates several homeless shelters throughout the El Paso area allegedly benefiting illegal aliens. Addie Hovland has more on the story.
     
• The court found Paxton has the authority to file a warrant challenging Annunciation House’s right to do business in Texas. If Paxton’s accusations are accurate, it could lead to the closure of Annunciation House.
     
• More than a year ago, Paxton sought access to the organization’s records after accusing it of aiding and sheltering illegal aliens. The organization denied his request, as did an El Paso district judge. 
      
• Justice Evan Young, who delivered the opinion, concluded that there is no lawful reason to bar Paxton from filing a "quo warranto" action or requesting records in this situation. Quo warrantos have a long historical standing in both common law and the Texas Constitution.

RELATED NEWS

• At issue was a controversial 2021 opinion by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that stripped the Office of the Attorney General of its prosecutorial powers over election fraud cases despite 70 years of precedent.
       
• The House version would have only allowed the attorney general to act if a local district attorney failed to bring charges within six months of receiving a case. The Senate, though, wanted the attorney general to have concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute alleged violations immediately.
       
• Sources familiar with the negotiations told Texas Scorecard the sticking point came down to the six-month delay in the House version, which the Senate and Paxton’s office viewed as an unacceptable barrier to enforcing election laws.

Lawmakers Send Ban on Foreign Land Ownership to Governor

• On Friday, lawmakers approved final language for Senate Bill 17, sending the long-debated measure to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature. The measure is seen by many as one of the most sweeping state-level efforts in the nation to restrict foreign land ownership tied to national security threats.
      
• The legislation prohibits governments, companies, and individuals from countries designated as national security threats—currently China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia—from acquiring any interest in real property in the state. That includes residential homes, agricultural land, industrial sites, groundwater, and other critical assets.
     
• One of the most controversial components during debate was an amendment offered on the House floor by State Rep. Matt Shaheen (R-Plano) that would have allowed foreign nationals from adversarial nations to purchase land as long as they were lawfully present in the United States. That language was ultimately removed in the final version of the bill.
       
• Enforcement of the law will fall under the jurisdiction of the attorney general, who is empowered to investigate suspected violations, file legal action to compel divestment, and pursue penalties.

Measure Protecting Children From Sexual Content in Public Libraries Dies in Senate

• The Senate failed to vote last week on a measure protecting children from sexual content in libraries before the midnight deadline on Wednesday. Senators laid the blame on "technical difficulties" in the chamber.
      
• The legislation, House Bill 3225 by Daniel Alders (R-Tyler), would have restricted the access of sexually explicit material in sections of a municipal public library that are designated for children. It also required that methods of age verification be utilized by municipal public libraries to ensure that children were not checking out sexually explicit material without parental knowledge and consent.
    
• The legislation had been deemed a priority of the Republican Party of Texas.

Measure Eliminating Lottery Commission Goes to the Governor

• With lawmakers having lost faith in the agency that has overseen the lottery since shortly after its inception, Daniel Greer reports Gov. Greg Abbott now has to decide if he wants to go along with moving management of the "games of Texas" to the Department of Licensing and Regulation.
      
• The Texas Lottery Commission, which has been in existence since 1991, has come under scrutiny in recent months after revelations of rigged jackpots, potential money laundering, and inappropriate collusion between government agency employees and vendors. The state lottery is currently the subject of multiple state and federal investigations.
     
• All of this began shortly after Texas Scorecard released a multi-part podcast investigation exposing corruption inside and around the lottery.

A&M Regents Likely To Eliminate More ‘Low-Performing’ Programs

• Following some November 2024 eliminations, the regents of the Texas A&M University System will likely terminate dozens more “low-performing” academic programs. Adam Cahn has the details.
      
• At a meeting of the regents last month, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs James Hallmark flagged 14 academic minors and 35 certificate programs for potential elimination at the College Station campus. In addition, the review could target 17 programs at Prairie View A&M and a handful at other institutions.
     
• The Texas A&M University System is the parent organization of 11 universities, including Texas A&M University at College Station.
       
• During the meeting, Regent Sam Torn, who chairs the board’s academic affairs committee, asked how the system could ensure the faculty is “teaching, not advocating” in the classroom. Hallmark spoke of the need “to empower department heads to communicate this,” but acknowledged that addressing the concern is an “inexact process.”

ICE Announces New Houston Arrests

• As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announces a wave of new arrests in a Houston drug case involving illegal aliens, the Houston Police Department is drawing scrutiny for delaying the release of bodycam footage tied to incidents when ICE was called in for support. Michael Wilson has the story.
      
• According to ICE, a 29-count indictment has been filed following the arrests of nine men allegedly involved in a narcotics operation that used the U.S. Mail and even a taco truck to distribute illicit drugs. The indictment alleges the trafficking operation dealt in multiple substances, including methamphetamine, powder cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, oxycodone, Xanax, psilocybin mushrooms, and marijuana.

Today In History

On June 2, 1873, the Texas Legislature created Wegefarth County in the high plains of the state's panhandle. Never heard of it? That's because the county, which was never organized, was abolished three years later.

Quote-Unquote

"No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session."

– Gideon Tucker​

One Click Survey

Constitutionally, the Texas Legislature meets in regular session for 140 days every other year. Today marks the end of the 89th Regular Session.

Click which letter grade best reflects your rating of the session's results overall, and then reply to today's Texas Minute explaining why.

REMINDER: The more concise the reply, the more likely we are to feature your response.