The senate last week passed several bills listed as major priorities by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
The senate passed a comprehensive winter-storm bill March 29, aimed at preventing another dayslong power outage as happened during the February storm.
SB 3, by Sen. Charles Schwertner of Georgetown, whose district covers Rockdale, would require all energy companies in Texas to weatherize critical infrastructure to stand up to a storm like the one that hit the state on Valentine’s Day. Those who don’t, or don’t make a good faith effort to, would face an escalating series of fines, all the way up to $1 million per day. It also creates a warning system similar to existing alert systems to warn Texans when they might be facing significant power outages due to weather.
“This puts in place a ‘power outage alert’ which will essentially do the same thing regarding alerting citizens that they need to take precautions: water, food, fuel up, basic things that would’ve helped a lot of individuals out if they had known they were going to be without power for four days,” Schwertner said.
On April 1, following hours of debate, the senate approved a bill that makes sweeping changes to the state’s electoral code that proponents say would improve vote security though opponents of the measure said it just makes it harder to vote. SB 7 by Sen. Bryan Hughes of Mineola, would bar counties from sending vote-by-mail applications to voters not eligible to vote by mail. It would ban drive-thru voting and require all central counting locations to be monitored by video.
Other bills passed by the Senate this week include:
• SB 5, by Jacksonville Sen. Robert Nichols, creates a statewide broadband program to extend high-speed internet access to every part of the state.
• SB 8, by Hughes, a “heartbeat bill”, which would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, typically around six weeks gestation.
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