AUSTIN, Texas – This Week in Texas Politics included the start of a new state and federal team that went beyond immigration. There was also movement under the capitol dome on school choice legislation, one of the hottest topics this session. 

A longer discussion can be found on the FOX 7 YouTube page and on FOX LOCAL

Texas headlines

What they’re saying:

RUDY KOSKI: Strokes from a presidential pen and a pen from the governor, as well as a beefed-up repackaged school choice plan dominated this cycle. This week in Texas politics. Let’s get our headlines from our panel. And we’ll start first with Patrick Svitek from The Washington Post. Patrick, your headline? 

PATRICK SVITEK: Well, you know, I’m coming to you from Washington where everyone’s been talking about the tragic plane crash that happened here. So, my headline is this, Tragedy on the Potomac. 

RUDY KOSKI: Political analyst Karina Kling, your headline for the week. 

KARINA KLING: Yeah. No surprise here, but in Texas, Education Savings Accounts are on the fast track in the Texas Senate. 

RUDY KOSKI: Mark Jones from Rice University, your headline for the week. 

MARK JONES: I’ll say, Shock and Awe. 

President Trump’s executive orders

Local perspective:

RUDY KOSKI: President Donald Trump went through a lot of ink this week, signing multiple executive orders. The orders range from deportations to dumping DEI. Patrick, several congressional members from Texas want to take those executive orders and make them law, codify them into law. Which ones are you tracking? 

PATRICK SVITEK: Some of these executive orders reflect, you know, generally speaking, ideas that have already been implemented in Texas. And so, in some ways, Texas has taken the lead on some of these issues, particularly related to immigration. I know the state is constantly trying to push the envelope on that. 

RUDY KOSKI: Karina, the governor sure is talking a lot about border security, and that’s probably going to be a big issue Sunday during his State of the State address. Right. 

KARINA KLING: I think Governor Abbott is just really doubling down. He asked the federal government last week for reimbursement of the $11 billion for what the state has pumped into Operation Lone Star, the border security efforts here. But I think that this is just Governor Abbott saying we’re moving forward, we’re moving ahead. 

MARK JONES: So, Texans have a nuanced view of immigration. If we’re talking about deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal convictions, nine out of ten of them favor doing that. If, on the other hand, the Trump administration begins deporting Dreamers as well as undocumented immigrants who have U.S. citizen children and spouses, that’s where you start to sort of not go against majority opinion, but you have a much larger share of the Texas population that is not on board with that. 

Latest on school choice in Texas

Local perspective:

RUDY KOSKI: A Senate committee this week passed the latest attempt at school choice here in Texas. That was followed by President Trump on Thursday signing a school choice executive order. Patrick, it’s getting big and broader, right? 

PATRICK SVITEK: So, Republicans in Texas are going to have much more political cover at the national level to pursue this agenda, this legislative session. 

KARINA KLING: And we’re hearing from the lieutenant governor saying this will get passed next week. We’re assuming that Governor Abbott will make school choice education savings account a priority item in a State of the State. 

MARK JONES: Well, I think for school choice advocates, they view this as an imperfect plan, but far better than the current status quo, which is no school choice. 

Latest in Texas Legislative Session

Local perspective:

RUDY KOSKI: Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick essentially backed a dump truck of bills into the Senate the other day and poured in 25 priority bills and then said, hey, I got a lot more that we’re going to total about 40 of them. Most of it is a collection of red meat. But there is one I think that could be substantial. That’s creating a Dementia Prevention and Research Institute in Texas. Mark, what’s on the list that you are watching? 

MARK JONES: What I think will be interesting is the Senate is likely to pass the large share, if not all of those. And then what will be fun to watch or at least, you know, intellectually interesting to watch is, what is Dustin Burrows do with this conservative avalanche of Bills that are going to arrive in the House sometime in mid, you know, late, late March and to mid-April. And what, it’ll be, it’ll be a good sort of test case for his alliance with Texas Democrats in terms of how much of that he effectively pushes through and how much of it he blocks. 

RUDY KOSKI: On Patrick’s list is an item establishing Texas as America’s film capital. Ironically, on Thursday, a coalition of Texas actors, including Matthew McConaughey, launched a campaign to tap into the budget surplus. For that, you know, I don’t know if state lawmakers will be starstruck over all this, but, you know, it could be interesting. Patrick, anything on the Lieutenant Governor’s list that has caught your attention. 

PATRICK SVITEK: Yeah, two things. I mean, I saw some items on there that seemed to echo what Republicans are pursuing nationally. There was the state level effort to do a Department of Government Efficiency. I also saw one of the bill titles was Make America Healthy Again. And so, you know, clearly reflecting the moment we’re in that now Republicans control the White House. You’re going to see Texas Republicans continue to try to complement or augment policies that Republicans are pushing at the national level. 

Wrapping up This Week in Texas Politics

Local perspective:

RUDY KOSKI: Let’s wrap it all up with one word for the week. And we’ll start first with Karina, your word for the week. 

KARINA KLING: It’s been a long week, so I’m going to say, Weekend. 

MARK JONES: I’ll stick with the theme of, Blitzkrieg. 

PATRICK SVITEK: Yeah, I’m going to stretch it and do, Déjà vu. Because we have the Lt Governor releasing a long list of priorities early in the session. People are swearing there’s only going to be one session this year. It sounds a lot like what we’ve heard every two years in Texas. 

RUDY KOSKI: All right. And that is This Week in Texas Politics.