House Appropriations Committee passes Senate budget

The House Appropriations Committee passed CSSB 1 today, the committee substitute for the Senate's version of the state budget.

Today's hearing was mostly procedural as much of the work on the budget is done in subcommittees, but it was an opportunity for the chair of each subcommittee to broadly describe what each article of the budget contains. In Article III, the article containing both K-12 and higher education, Subcommittee Chair Rep Stan Kitzman (R-Pattison) said that Article III contains $10 billion in appropriations contingent on legislation passing, $450 million for TRS ActiveCare, and that the Foundation School Program will be fully funded for the biennium.

After each subcommittee reported, Chair Greg Bonnen (R-Friendswood) called for a vote on moving the budget to the full House for consideration. Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian) objected, launching into a speech calling it "the most liberal budget in the history of Texas," but none of his many Republican colleagues seemed to agree with him. The bill passed out of the committee, 23-2 with two members absent. The other dissenting vote, Rep. Vikki Goodwin (D-Austin), had previously expressed concerns with funding for Bluebonnet Learning materials and symbolically voted against the budget as well.

The bill will now be considered before the full House.

Updates from the Capitol

Publication Date