Governor Rick Perry has added legislation on the "regulation of abortion procedures, providers and facilities" to the special session. The laws proposed would severely limit health care access for Texas families. Hearings on the legislation start today in the Texas Legislature.Read More >>
Last week, a group of civil rights leaders filed an ethics complaint against Judge Edith Jones, the former chief judge of Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Jones is under fire for allegedly saying that, "racial groups like African-Americans and Hispanics are predisposed to crime." SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts, has ordered a rare formal review of Jones' case.Read More >>
Rick Perry is threatening to shut down the criminal CPRIT investigation by vetoing funds for the Travis County Public Integrity Unit. The criminal investigation is looking at the diversion of cancer money to Perry cronies. Governor Perry would want nothing more than the CPRIT investigation to go away.Read More >>
Don't Let Texas Rubber Stamp Bad Maps! The Governor is pushing flawed maps in a process that is intentionally designed to be unfair. Sign our petition and tell your state legislators to oppose maps that dilute the voting strength of minority voters.Read More >>
It’s been a busy spring here at Progress Texas. But when you’re busy fighting for important issues in our state, it makes it all worthwhile. This month we’ve seen the conclusion of the 83rd Texas Legislative Session, the start of a special session, the return of redistricting, and even the return of the Tea Party. Read More >>
The Texas Legislature was immediately called back for a special session on redistricting, and Texas conservatives are preparing to once again push maps that intentionally discriminate against African-Americans and Hispanics in Texas. Read More >>
Last week, I started as the new Executive Director at Progress Texas. I was only here for a few hours before our team was making national news in leading the way to debunk nutty claims about the IRS from right wing groups. It was a wild first day, and by 5pm, Progress Texas had shaped news coverage on ABC News, Bloomberg, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Slate and many others.Read More >>
An overwhelming majority of organizations screened by the IRS after 2010 were not Tea Party groups, including Progress Texas. However, that hasn't stopped the paranoid Tea Party from thinking they shouldn't have to play by the same rules.Read More >>
Dan Backer, a Washington-based Tea Party attorney, went on NRP yesterday morning and said that the IRS in 2010 should have simply hired more employees to process requests . . . all while fighting everyday to eliminate the IRS entirely.Read More >>
The IRS sent our organization, Progress Texas, the same letter it sent various Tea Party organizations that you're reading about in the news. It took 479 days for our tax-exempt request to be approved. Read more about this - including the documents we received - here.Read More >>
Everyone has their own view on when a child should start school; while many kids begin to go to preschool as early as age three, some places in the world delay schooling until kids are six or seven. In studies of the US educational system, however, data points overwhelmingly toward the notion that when it comes to preschool, the benefits are enormous.Read More >>
David Dewhurst and Texas Republican lawmakers hosted a press conference Tuesday morning touting Steve Hotze, a Houston-area "doctor" who is suing to stop the Affordable Care Act being implemented in Texas. Hotze's rather insane beliefs include the idea that a woman must get permission from a man to work outside the home.Read More >>
Right Wing Watch has posted a video from this Sunday of Rick Perry telling the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins that the Boy Scouts must resist the pressure from LGBT activists and calls anti-LGBT activists fighting to keep the current discriminatory policies to anti-slavery abolitionists during the civil war.Read More >>
Texas Senator Ted "Wacko Bird" Cruz is obsessed with opposing the Affordable Care Act. But the last time he spoke out against it, he got caught lying about the impact of Medicaid expansion. Then he tried to say he wasn't lying - only to be told he was still lying. Oops.Read More >>
This morning the Lone Star Project released a shocking report that shows AG Greg Abbott has spent well over $1.5 million on out-of-state legal counsel in an effort to force use of discriminatory redistricting maps.Read More >>
Texas House Republicans killed the State Water Plan - House Bill 11 - with their own reckless amendment, the GOP Sequester Plan. The defeated GOP Sequester Plan would have cut $2 Billion - or about 2% - from the bi-annual state budget. It was written to trigger if HB 11 did not pass with the necessary 2/3s vote.Read More >>
While the country celebrates NBA player Jason Collins' coming out, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott takes away Texas same sex couples' few rights.Read More >>
A recent poll by the ALEC-affiliated conservative think tank, Texas Public Policy Foundation, found that a majority of Texans think that public school funding is too low. We'd like to thank TPPF for releasing the poll - which aligns with similar poll figures other groups have released.Read More >>
In a valiant attempt to extend legal protection for same-sex couples, Rep. González has authored HB 2403 that would remove gender restrictions in the "Romeo and Juliet" defense. On Tuesday, the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence advanced Bill 2403 on a committee vote of 5-3.Read More >>
The explosion at the West fertilizer plant killed 14 people, injured over 200, and damaged more than 350 homes. In the wake of the explosion, Texas' local news organizations are investigating the lack of state and national regulation for these plants. Here's the latest on what they have found.Read More >>
Senate Bill 537 is officially stalled in the Senate - one vote short of the super majority needed to bring it to the floor. SB 537, filed by State Senator Bob Deuell (R), is a thinly veiled attempt to close more than than three-fourths of the abortion clinics in Texas (37 of 42) by subjecting them to unnecessary and burdensome regulations.Read More >>
Just when you thought the fearmongering over common sense gun violence legislation couldn't get any more absurd - Representative Steve Stockman (R-TX) has taken it to a whole new level by comparing the work of Demand an Action and gun safety advocates to Japanese American WWII internment camps.Read More >>
Governor Rick Perry has launched another ad campaign telling business owners to come to Texas, but the latest "Texas On The Brink" study makes it clear, we're on a sinking ship. Read More >>
Attorney General Greg Abbott is preparing for an "assault" on Texas that he claims is even more dangerous than North Korea. Battlegound Texas.
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