The 86th Texas Legislature is underway. Because the Legislature has a regular session only every other year, the work is intense.

You can track bills and committees, view video of meetings, and contact your representatives and senators at https://capitol.texas.gov/ 

LWV of Texas publishes updates about the Legislature on their website. We subscribe to their articles, so you can also see their latest news by scrolling down the list on our Articles page.

January Advisors publishes maps that show who is filing bills in the legislature:  . Check out these wonderful maps, which are updated daily by a LWV Houston board member. Dem districts are blue, Rep districts are red. The more intense the color, the more bills have been filed by a legislator. You can hover over a district and see the name of the official and the list and description of bills filed.

Texas Campaign for the Environment Fund (TCEF) recently released a report “Missing the Mark" about Texas environmental needs. These are some of the issues TCEF will be working on in the 2019 legislative session:

• Hazardous waste Cleanup programs, especially in reference to Hurricane Harvey clean up issues. The article “Missing the Mark” deals with this issue.
• Permitting of local solid waste facilities
• Restore local control on plastic bags and trees
• Attacks on renewable energy providers by the oil and gas lobby