Yay! Spending Limits!
What to know: The Legislature passed a bill that will limit state spending to what the Conservative Texas Budget outlines—no growth beyond population plus inflation.
The TPPF take: This will help rein in the growth of government.
“This critical reform that places much of TPPF’s Conservative Texas Budget in state law is yet another way that Texas is leading nationally to support the needs of the state while removing barriers like excessive spending,” says TPPF’s Vance Ginn.
For more on the spending limit, click here.
Reminder: Be Ready for the Lies
What to know: Lawmakers will be returning to Austin to reconsider the election protection bill that died late Sunday night. Here’s a reminder that their arguments against the bill are baseless and misleading.
The TPPF take: When legislature redraft the bill, they’ll again be accused of proposing unconstitutional voter suppression.
“But did Senate Bill 7 do anything unconstitutional?” asks TPPF’s Roy Maynard. “On the contrary; by banning ‘practices as voting after 9 p.m., drive-thru voting, and dropping off an absentee ballot in a secure drop box,’ as the Houston Chronicle put it recently, SB 7 simply reminded Texas counties (such as Harris, where Houston is located) that according to the U.S. Constitution, the ‘time, place and manner’ of elections is to be determined by the Legislature—not county officials. This isn’t unconstitutional; it is the Constitution.”
For more on election protection, click here.
End Discrimination by Ending Discrimination
What to know: The Biden administration’s plan to distribute some COVID-19 relief according to the race and gender of the business owners has hit some legal obstacles; a lawsuit filed by TPPF and America First Legal won a victory in a federal court.
The TPPF take: As U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has ruled before, the “way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”
“For over 125 years, the United States Supreme Court has recognized that the Constitution forbids discrimination by the government against any citizen because of his race,” says TPPF’s Robert Henneke. “This lawsuit will enforce that guarantee.”
For more on what TPPF’s legal arm, the Center for the American Future, is up, to click here.