It’ll be another busy week for the Texas Legislature. With a take on what to watch for this week, here's Texas Tribune executive editor, Ross Ramsey.
"Well the Senate is going to look at CPRIT. There's some education legislation wondering around that could come up for consideration in the Senate. And the House is going to look at the budget. The legislature has "plenty of money" this session. We didn't walk into a deficit situation. We didn't walk into a situation where we have to cut the budget. So we won't have things like the education cuts we had in 2011. We won't have the conversation about short-sheeting the Medicaid program like we did in 2011. But when the House gets into a situation where they're going to spend all day arguing on something as big as the budget, and they have 267 opportunities to argue, they'll find something."
One of the highest profile events this week already happened. This morning Governor Rick Perry met with U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz to reiterate about the state’s refusal to join in the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. Over the chants of protestors, Governor Perry told reports made it clear he hasn’t changed his mind.
"Expanding Medicaid is not a solution," Perry said in a press conference with Sen's Cornyn and Cruz. "It’s not even a Band-Aid for what ails us. In short, it’s a prescription for failure. And Texas will not be part of it.”
Not to be outdone, the highest profile Democrats in the state, including San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro followed immediately with a press conference making the case for expansion. But there’s very little anyone in Texaswho supports expansion can do without Governor Perry’s approval.
You can e-mail the show at AgendaTexas@kut.org and be sure to follow us on Twitter: @AgendaTexas
