MRT: Ron Wright Memorial Set; TX to Get $5.5B for Schools; Rolling Outages in Austin; SA Mayoral Rivals Differ on Economy; Cornyn, Cruz Vote to Acquit
Here's What You Need to Know in Texas Today.
MustReadTexas.com – @MustReadTexas
BY: @MattMackowiak
MONDAY – 02/15/21
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Good morning from Austin.
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Today is the 34th day of the 140-day Legislative Session.
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“If something of importance is known in Texas, Matt knows it. With a decline in the number of credible news organizations, the Must Read Texas morning email is indispensable for anyone that wants to continue to be informed.” – Former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX)
RON WRIGHT MEMORIAL DETAILS
OBITUARY:
U.S. Rep. Ron Wright (R-TX) -- https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/arlington-tx/ron-wright-10053580
FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS:
WHAT: Ron Wright Lies in Repose
WHEN: Friday, February 19th, 2021 (2:00 PM - 7:00 PM CT)
WHERE: AT&T Stadium; 1 AT&T Way, Arlington, Texas 76011
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WHAT: The Funeral Service for Ron Wright
WHEN: Saturday, February 20th, 2021 (11:00 AM CT)
WHERE: Will Rogers Memorial Center, Texas Room, 3401 W. Lancaster Avenue, Fort Worth, Texas 76107
WHO: Most Reverend Michael F. Olson, Bishop of Fort Worth will preside over the service.
DONATIONS
Mission Metroplex/Mission Arlington
Metroplex Women's Clinic
Traffick911
The National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation
TOP NEWS
"Stars align for further rally in crude oil prices," The San Antonio Express-News' Dan Graeber -- "The prospects of a massive economic stimulus package in the United States and strike by oil and gas workers in Norway could support the rally in oil prices this week, analysts said.
The rally has gained momentum in recent weeks despite more than a year of demand destruction by the COVID-19 pandemic. The price for Brent crude, the international benchmark, increased by about 5 percent last week, settling at $62.43 per barrel, the highest close in more than year.
The last time Brent prices reached that high was late January 2020, when the U.S. government first declared a national emergency due to the coronavirus outbreak.
With the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump concluding with an expected acquittal in the Senate, the Biden administration can now move in earnest on plans to roll out a $1.9 trillion stimulus package. The economic growth fueled by the federal spending would likely increase energy demand, analysts said.
Phil Flynn, a senior energy analyst at The PRICE Futures Group in Chicago, said Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL oil pipeline to the Gulf Coast and restrict drilling on federal lands is supporting the rally, possibly to the detriment of consumers as gasoline prices rise with crude. The average price of gasoline nationally was last week were 13 cents per gallon higher than month earlier and within 2 cents of prices a year earlier, not long before widespread shutdowns cratered demand, according to the fuel-price tracking website GasBuddy.
“The Biden administration better get stimulus through,” Flynn said. “His voters might start blaming him” for higher prices." San Antonio Express-News
"Texas tenants behind on rent will soon be able to seek aid from $1.3 billion assistance program," The Texas Tribune's Juan Pablo Graham -- "State officials plan to roll out a $1.3 billion rental assistance program for Texans struggling to keep up with housing payments during a shaky economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. The new program comes after a separate state initiative was criticized for its limited scope and because many landlords declined to participate.
More than 1.6 million Texans had little or no confidence in being able to pay next month’s rent, according to a January survey by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Assistance for the new program will only be available to households that make no more than 80% of the area’s median income, which varies by county and by the number of members in a household. In 2020, for example, the threshold for a family of four in the Houston area was around $63,000.
Tenants that qualify can apply for funds to cover past-due rent dating back to March 13, 2020. They can also apply for up to three months of current or future rent and eventually reapply if needed. Qualified tenants can receive help covering a maximum of 15 months of rent. Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs has created a website with the requirements and instructions on how to apply, as well as a hotline (1-833-989-7368).
The new program, which will start receiving applications on Feb. 15, will help with both for past or future rent payments. According to the department, around 80,000 households will be able to receive assistance. Both landlords and tenants will be able to apply. Once the program is running, the payments could take up to two weeks to reach the tenants or landlords if the paperwork is filed correctly, said Brooke Boston, deputy executive director of programs at the agency." Texas Tribune
STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
"Texas to get $5.5 billion more in federal funding for schools but won’t say how it will be spent," The Dallas Morning News' Emily Donaldson -- "Texas students need additional resources to overcome academic setbacks brought on by the pandemic, but school leaders aren’t so sure they’ll have the flexibility to spend new federal dollars to help them.
The federal government gave Texas two big education stimulus packages — totaling around $6.8 billion — to help students recover from the pandemic.
But as the first package of $1.3 billion flowed to districts, local school administrators saw aid cut elsewhere. It was hard to keep up with the new needs driven by the pandemic— such as physical improvements to campuses so students can learn safely in person and expanded online infrastructure for those in remote classes — as Texas used federal dollars to replace state funding.
Now that Texas is poised to receive its second round, educators are waiting to find out if it will flow as additional dollars that they can use to address deep learning losses.
“It’s going to take additional funding and additional services and not just over a three-month period or a six-month period,” said Kevin Brown, executive director of the Texas Association of School Administrators. “This is a serious crisis that our children face, and it is going to take multiple years to address all of the needs.”
But there’s no clear answer on how the new money will be spent. Education Commissioner Mike Morath said in January that “appropriators” will determine that. Texas Education Agency officials did not respond to questions from The Dallas Morning News asking how Morath would spend that money, when it will be distributed or who will have the final say on how it gets spent.
The ultimate authority over the federal dollars and how to use them rests with the education agency and Morath. Even though the agency has the ability to distribute the funds without express approval from the Legislature — and did so with the first round of stimulus money — it doesn’t look like that will happen again." Dallas Morning News
"Rolling power outages lasting longer than expected, Austin Energy says," The Austin American-Statesman's Roberto Villalpando -- "Austin Energy began rotating blackouts across the city early Monday to ease the strain on the power grid amid a record-setting freeze in Central Texas.
"Due to record electric demand, Texas electric grid operator is directing rotating outages to protect electric grid reliability," the utility said in a written statement, referring to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages most of the state's power output.
Austin Energy tweeted at 3:30 a.m. that outages were lasting longer than the expected 40 minutes "due to the severity of weather and the condition of the [ERCOT] grid" and asked residents to continue to conserve energy. The extended outages have continued past 5:30 a.m.
ERCOT overnight declared an Energy Emergency Alert Level 3, which called for Austin Energy, along with other utilities across Texas, to begin rotating outages to close the gap between power reserves and consumer demand." Austin American-Statesman
2021
"Mayoral rivals differ on ways to aid economy," The San Antonio Express-News' Joshua Fletcher -- "In the race for mayor, incumbent Ron Nirenberg and challenger Greg Brockhouse have starkly different visions for how to resolve what is sure to be a central issue of the campaign: How to rebuild the city’s economy and get residents back to work.
The COVID-19 pandemic devastated much of San Antonio’s economy, particularly the city’s restaurant and hospitality industries, initially wiping out more than 120,000 local jobs. Though the region had regained tens of thousands of jobs by the end of last year, many businesses and low-wage workers are still struggling.
To kick off his campaign, Brockhouse released a number of lofty ideas — among them building a brand-new airport and having the city’s lobbyists get more involved in legalizing marijuana and gambling at the state level. The former city councilman believes those efforts will help the city get out of its predicament.
“Our city needs a mayor who is solely focused on protecting and helping create jobs for our citizens, with a relentless pursuit of employment for every San Antonian,” Brockhouse said.
Nirenberg has at least a few economic wins in his corner to make a case that he’s the “jobs” mayor.
Voters gave the mayor the go-ahead in November on his $154 million sales tax initiative to pay for job training and college degrees for tens of thousands of residents over the next four years — resulting in the biggest electoral victory of Nirenberg’s career and marking it as his signature economic achievement.
Nirenberg also has touted more than $1 billion in major manufacturing investments announced over the last two years — Toyota’s planned $391 million expansion of its South Side plant, Navistar International Corp.’s $250 million truck plant and Japanese transmission maker Aisin’s incoming $400 million plant in neighboring Cibolo." San Antonio Express-News
#TXLEGE
"Democratic lawmakers hope to enact statewide nondiscrimination law and ban conversion therapy for LGBTQ Texans," The Texas Tribune's Megan Menchaca -- "During his first few weeks in office, President Joe Biden has reversed the ban on transgender people in the military and directed U.S. government agencies operating abroad to protect the human rights of LGBTQ people worldwide.
But LGBTQ advocates and lawmakers in Texas face a much tougher battle in the Republican-controlled Legislature affirming LGBTQ people’s rights and protecting them from discrimination.
This legislative session, some legislators are trying to pass bills that would prohibit conversion therapy and discrimination against LGBTQ Texans. They’re also trying to prevent laws that would ban transgender girls and women from joining single-sex sports teams in public schools and universities or that could keep doctors from providing care affirming childrens’ gender identity.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal civil rights law prevents employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Biden has said he will prioritize the The Equality Act, which would go a step further and prohibit similar discrimination in housing, public education and other places.
State Rep. Jessica González, D-Dallas, still worries that previous landmark Supreme Court decisions could be overturned. And that the fate of congressional attempts at expanding federal protections is uncertain. She said the state Legislature needs to put laws on the books that protect LGBT Texans from discrimination.
She plans to introduce a bill that would provide protections for LGBTQ Texans from discrimination in employment, public accommodations and housing. The bill will boost the economy by attracting more businesses to Texas if the state affords its LGBTQ employees equal protections, she said." Texas Tribune
TEXANS IN DC
"Cornyn, Cruz join GOP colleagues in successful acquittal of Trump," The Texas Tribune's Abby Livingston -- "Texas' two Republican senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, joined with most of their GOP colleagues on Saturday to successfully acquit former President Donald Trump of an impeachment charge that accused him of inciting the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
While Republicans were successful in holding the line for a president who left office nearly a month ago, a majority of the Senate voted to convict the president. In all, seven GOP Senators joined with 50 Democrats in a guilty vote against Trump.
That sum fell short of a conviction, as a two-thirds majority is needed for a guilty verdict. The impetus for Democrats and some Republicans to push for Trump’s conviction after he left office was to bar him from running again in the future.
This fourth presidential impeachment in American history — the second against Trump — was a bitter affair, but only lasted five days. And repeatedly, Texans played key roles— as prosecutor, jury, de facto witnesses and defense counsel adviser.
While a trial, the events over the last week did not ascribe to the normal rules of a court of law. For instance, reporters often spotted Cruz ducking in and out of meetings with Trump's legal team, even as Cruz also served as a juror.
U.S. House Rep. Joaquin Castro, a San Antonio Democrat, served as a House impeachment manager — the prosecutorial arm of the proceedings. In the case he and his colleagues made before the Senate, they argued that Trump methodically primed his following with false claims of impending fraud months ahead of the November election." Texas Tribune
"How judicial appointments in Texas will work — or not — under a Democratic president and two GOP senators," The Dallas Morning News' Tom Benning and Gromer Jeffers Jr. -- "A potential showdown looms over Texas appointments after the White House tapped Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Dallas Democrat, to lead a judicial vetting process that’s traditionally been handled by the state’s Republican senators.
The arrangement, while not unprecedented, may foreshadow bruising partisan battles in the coming months over lifetime appointments to the bench, as well as key U.S. attorney spots.
House members have no defined role in that confirmation process, which instead works through the Senate. But there is an inherent tension in Texas these days: Democrats control the White House and Senate, while Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz are stalwart conservatives.
Johnson, a 15-term lawmaker who said the White House had tasked her to work with other Texas Democrats, channeled years of Democratic complaints that the GOP has stiffed them on judicial nominations by saying there is now “some expectation from our delegation that we have input.”
“It worked very well under Sen. [Phil] Gramm and Sen. [Kay Bailey] Hutchison,” she explained, referring to the two Texas Republicans who preceded Cornyn and Cruz in the Senate. “It hasn’t worked as well under Sen. Cornyn and Sen. Cruz.”
Cornyn and Cruz have pushed back on Democrats’ criticism that they’ve slow-walked the process under Democratic presidents and pressed fast-forward under GOP ones.
But the big question now is whether President Joe Biden and other Democrats — including Sen. Dick Durbin, the new chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee — will really play hardball with the Texas Republicans by ignoring traditions designed to protect senators in the political minority." Dallas Morning News
'MACK ON POLITICS' PODCAST
LATEST "MACK ON POLITICS" PODCAST: Virginia and the economic recovery are the subjects of our 272nd episode.
Our guest is my old friend Pete Snyder, investor, businessman and Republican candidate for Governor of Virginia.
In this conversation we discuss his business career, his recent experience helping save small businesses during the economic shutdown, why he’s running for Governor, why he wants to immediately reopen the schools, and where he wants to lead the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Available on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher and on the web at http://www.MackOnPoliticsPodcast.com.
BOOK MATT MACKOWIAK AS A SPEAKER
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Matt Mackowiak will review the 2020 election and Preview the 2021 legislative session for your company, association, convention or meeting.
Contact us for rates and dates.
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"I am not always up to date on current news. I know I can count on Matt to give me the 'cliff notes' version of the most important news of the day. I rely on Matt to keep me informed with news that is important to me. He is my news source, and should be yours." - Debra Coffey, TFRW Patron's Co-Chair, former First TFRW VP
"Matt is a straight shooter. He says what he thinks and his analysis is educated and bold. As a repeat presenter at our association meetings he has continually wowed the crowd." - Clayton Stewart, PAC Director, Texas Medical Association
“Wanting a candid and thorough assessment of the statewide primary ballot, I arranged for Matt to speak to members from across the state during a board meeting. For more than an hour, he provided insights into the campaign environment and looked ahead to the 2015 legislative session in ways that our members found valuable, useful and clearly helpful. This portion of the board meeting was a big hit for our members, and have been talking about it for months. Matt has the contacts, experience and balanced insight to give a behind the scenes perspective that provides value.” - Jerry Valdez, Executive Director, Career Colleges & Schools of Texas
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RECENT SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS:
Feb. 13 - Leadership Institute Youth Summit training (Austin, TX)
Feb. 10 - Texas Strong Republican Women luncheon (Denton, TX)
Feb. 3 - Northwest Austin Republican Women dinner (Austin, TX)
Jan. 11 - South Austin Republican Club (Austin, TX)
Nov. 10 - Leadership Austin Engage Series: Election Review (virtual)
Oct. 20 - Lake Travis GOP luncheon (Lakeway, TX)
Oct. 19 - Zoom Election Preview @ Headliners Club (Austin, TX)
Oct. 19 - IPI luncheon (Dallas, TX)
Sept. 29 - IPI Debate preview (virtual)