Dan Patrick Unveils Texas Senate Priorities
Outside of school choice, other priorities for Patrick include several rightwing culture war goals like “placing the ten commandments in school” and “stopping drag time story hour.”
This week, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick unveiled the first of his legislative priority bills for the new session of the Texas Senate. In his capacity as Lt. Governor, Patrick is also the president of the Texas Senate, which gives him a huge sway in the legislative process.
Unsurprisingly, passing a school choice bill was near the top of Patrick’s 25-bill wish list. Throughout last year, Patrick was telegraphing his desire to pass school voucher legislation. Like Governor Abbott, Patrick has been the recipient of major donations from school choice advocates like the Pennsylvania billionaire Jeff Yass.
Outside of school choice, other priorities for Patrick include several rightwing culture war goals like “placing the ten commandments in school” and “stopping drag time story hour.” Another priority bill for Patrick is “requiring local law enforcement to assist the federal government’s deportation efforts.”
Some of the priority bills do not have specific legislation behind them and are overly broad, including Texas DOGE, which is a play off the Elon Musk backed initiative that does not actual have federal funds or powers.
Another priority bill from Patrick would also establish the Texas Bitcoin reserve. There is a counterpart to that in the Texas House. Patrick also included “banning THC in Texas” as one of his priorities. That would actually put him on a collision course with Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, who does not support that.
According to Patrick, another 15 priority bills for the Texas Senate will be released shortly (for a total of forty).
