Good morning,

This is the Texas Minute for Wednesday, October 1, 2025.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Federal Judges to Decide Texas Redistricting Case

• A legal showdown over Texas’ new congressional map begins today in a federal court in El Paso. As Travis Morgan explains, the outcome will determine whether the state’s latest congressional boundaries can be used in upcoming elections.
      
• This summer, the Department of Justice sent a letter to Texas warning that four congressional districts—drawn as part of the state’s 2021 redistricting—were unconstitutional because they impermissibly relied on race. The new congressional map—signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in August—added five new Republican-opportunity seats ahead of the 2026 midterm election.
      
• Democrat-aligned groups consolidated an ongoing 2021 dispute into a new legal challenge against the 2025 congressional maps before they were even signed into law.
      
• Because Democrats want the court to block the use of the maps in the 2026 election, the court hearings will run each weekday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. through October 10. Texas Scorecard will be reporting from the courthouse each day.

Abbott Directs DPS To Step Up Security at Texas Churches

• After a horrifying assault over the weekend at a church in Michigan, Gov. Greg Abbott has directed the Texas Department of Public Safety to ramp up security around places of worship across the state. Brandon Waltens has the details.
      
• According to the governor’s office, the goal is to identify threats and prevent life-threatening attacks before they happen. The security operation will include Texas Highway Patrol troopers, Criminal Investigations Division special agents, and Texas Rangers, with support from the agency’s Homeland Security Division.
     
• Texas has taken several steps in recent years to allow churches more freedom to protect themselves and their congregants. Under state law, churches may form volunteer security teams without requiring members to be licensed as private security guards, so long as they are unpaid and do not wear uniforms suggesting they are law enforcement.
      
• "We will marshal all resources necessary to safeguard our places of faith." – Greg Abbott

FOLLOW-UP: Texas Halts CDLs for Refugees, Asylees, and DACA Recipients

• Following a nationwide audit that exposed widespread violations of federal law, including in Texas, the Department of Public Safety has suspended the issuance of certain commercial driver licenses in response to new emergency rules from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
     
• Effective immediately, DPS will no longer issue or renew non-domicile CDLs, commercial learner permits, or any commercial licenses for refugees, asylees, or DACA recipients. The agency confirmed the suspension also halts any pending applications or testing for drivers in those categories.
      

• As part of the federal directive, all commercial license renewals for noncitizens must now be conducted in person, and expiration dates must align with the individual’s visa status or be limited to one year, whichever comes first.
       

• Earlier this month, Gov. Greg Abbott directed DPS to begin enforcing English-language proficiency reviews for commercial drivers, in line with President Donald Trump’s order tightening federal licensing standards.

NRG Energy Awarded $562 Million From Texas Energy Fund

• Michael Wilson reports that a half-billion-dollar low-interest loan from the Texas Energy Fund will be used by NGR Energy to build a new natural gas power plant near Baytown.  
      
• The 721-megawatt facility is projected to generate enough electricity to power more than 180,000 homes during peak demand and is expected to come online in 2028. The taxpayer-backed loan carries a 3 percent interest rate and will be repaid over 20 years.
      
• Last month, NGR received a $216 million loan from the same fund to add 456 megawatts of capacity to existing plants in the region. NRG has previously said it would not pursue several of these projects without the taxpayer-backed loans.
      
• The Texas Energy Fund was created in 2023 in response to the 2021 winter storm and set aside $7 billion for low-interest loans to expand the state’s power supply. In the two years since its creation, only three loans have been awarded, two of them to NGR. According to the governor's office, 14 more applications are under review.

Whitesboro Officials Approve Huge Property Tax Increase

• Residents in the small North Texas city of Whitesboro are about to get hit with big property tax increases, reports Erin Anderson. Earlier this week, members of the Whitesboro City Council unanimously approved a property tax rate for 2025 that will hike the average homeowner’s city property tax bills by $498.
      
• City residents will not have the opportunity to vote on the tax hike. That's because a carve-out in a 2019 property tax reform law exempts municipalities with fewer than 30,000 residents from a 3.5 percent tax-increase cap imposed on larger cities.

UT-Austin Announces Faculty Advisory Structure

• In response to sweeping changes mandated by a new state law, Adam Cahn reports that the University of Texas at Austin has unveiled a major overhaul in faculty governance that includes the creation of two advisory bodies.
      
• One entity, the President’s Faculty Advisory Board, will be comprised of 12 faculty members and will assist with matters concerning the entire university. Meanwhile, the Faculty Advisory Cohort—with 60 faculty members—will advise university leadership on more specialized matters. Unlike the previous faculty advisory council, which had jurisdiction over university policies, the new bodies are advisory only.
      
• A 2025 state law abolished shared governance at taxpayer-subsidized universities. This was the practice where unaccountable faculty members wielded power over university operations instead of the constitutionally defined officers.
      
• Under the reformed system, final authority for all university policies resides with the university president, who answers to the Board of Regents.

OTHER HIGHER EDUCATION NEWS

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