Accomplishments

Regular Session
SB 2
Coauthor
Creates a Education Savings Account (ESA) program funded by general revenue. The program does not reduce public school funding and is not tied to teacher pay raises.

SB 4 & SJR 2
Joint Author
Provides meaningful reduction in school district property taxes to Texas homeowners by raising the Homestead Exemption from $100,000 to $140,000.

SB7 & HJR 7
Coauthor
Dedicates $1 billion annually to water projects, addressing the growing demand for water in Texas and the depletion of aquifers and surface water supplies.

SB 17
Joint Author
Prohibits hostile foreign governments, companies, and individuals from purchasing or acquiring real property in the state. The bill specifically targets entities linked to the countries of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, which the U.S. intelligence community has identified as threats to national security.

SB 870
Author
Authorizes a school marshal, appointed by a school district’s board of trustees or the governing body of an open-enrollment charter school, to open carry a handgun on school property, contingent upon approval by the local educational agency and the marshal wearing a uniform that clearly identifies them as a school marshal.

SB 2052
Author
Codifies the Supreme Court’s ruling, and clarifies that suits by non-parents requesting custody must provide evidence that overcome the presumption that the parent makes decisions that are in the best interest of the child and it is in the best interest of a child to be in the care, custody, and control of a parent. The non-parent must prove the parent(s) unfit, not simply be in a better financial situation for a judge to award custody to the non-parent just because of their financial heft.

SB 1146
Author
Expedites the plugging of orphaned wells and alleviates the financial burden on the state by authorizing operators to contract for the plugging of orphaned wells that are located on leases upon which they are operating. The bill allows operators to exercise due diligence in plugging wells that may compromise nearby production operations and take orphaned wells off the state’s rolls without incurring liability for being a good neighbor.

SB 1758
Author
Creates a pilot program to find effects on aggregate production operations and semiconductor wafer manufacturers operating near each other.

SJR 37
Author
Proposes a constitutional amendment clarifying that non-citizens of the United States may not vote in any election within the State of Texas.

SJR 59
Author
Establishes a constitutionally dedicated, permanent endowment to fund the capital infrastructure needs of career and technical education programs offered by the Texas State Technical College System (TSTC).

HB 2
Cosponsor
Historic school finance legislation, including the largest single increase in public education funding in Texas history, record permanent teacher and staff pay raises, expanded incentive pay and teacher training programs, and much more.

HB 2663
Sponsor
Requires electric service equipment to be removed from oil and gas wells that have been inactive for 10 years or more to help reduce risk of wildfire.

HB 4903
Sponsor
Establishes the Quad-Agency Childcare Initiative to promote collaboration among the primary state agencies involved in childcare governance in Texas.

Second Special Session
SB 1/ SB 3/ SB 5
Coauthor/ Joint Author/ Coauthor
Comprehensive legislation intended to address the needs and challenges relating to campground and youth camp safety identified during and after the devastating July 4, 2025 floods that inundated Central and West Texas.

SB 14
Joint Author
Incentivizes the use of more efficient water and wastewater infrastructure and appliances in new developments by providing for credits against those impact fees when such equipment is installed by the developer, ultimately reducing both the cost of new housing and the impact of new developments to existing water and wastewater systems.

2019

SB 2
Coauthor
Delivers $2.6 billion in property tax relief over the next five years by requiring voter approval of a tax rate that brings in 2.5% or more revenue from the previous tax year as opposed to the 8% increase rate.  Local governments must now come to the taxpayer for revenue increases at a much lower level of increase than the previous 36 years. This makes the process more transparent and gives taxpayers more control over their property taxes.

SB 12
Joint Author
Honors the state’s promise to teachers by securing the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) through reforms ensuring the TRS pension fund is actuarially sound. The pension fund can now fund its liabilities and has provided security for TRS retirees to receive their promised benefits for years to come.

SB 22
Joint Author
Prohibits certain transactions between a governmental entity and an abortion provider or an affiliate of the provider.

SB 30
Author
Requires local taxing entities to write more transparent and detailed ballot language for propositions to issue bonds or impose or increase a tax. Instead of lumping multiple projects with different purposes into a single bond item where the voter may only choose to support all the items or reject all the items, these bond proposals must be printed on the ballot as separate propositions, allowing each issue up for voter approval to be considered individually. This bill affords you the ability to control public expenditures better and have more control over subsequent tax increases associated with such bonds’ approval.

SB 31
Joint Author
Establishes a guardianship abuse, fraud, and exploitation deterrence program at the State Office of Court Administration.

SB 72
Coauthor
Establishes a coordinating council to tackle the grave issue of human trafficking.

SB 405
Author
Expands the protections for law enforcement officers against false accusations by including corrections officers and jailers as persons to whom an individual may not knowingly make a false claim without facing a penalty. This adds more protection for our law enforcement officers against erroneous claims.

SB 530
Author
Holds public water suppliers accountable for their service users’ health and safety by increasing the penalties associated with violating state laws enforcing the Safe Drinking Water Act.

SB 535
Coauthor
Protects our places of worship by ensuring handgun license holders can legally carry handguns in churches, synagogues, and other places of worship unless the church prohibits its members from carrying.

SB 548
Author
This legislation implements several necessary reforms at the Texas Ethics Commission (TEC). The bill precludes the TEC from continuing abuses that were occurring in previous years that did not afford due process protections in their administrative procedures.  This bill ensures that when complaints are filed, the person against whom the complaint is lodged has the right to representation, speedy resolution of the complaint, ability to present facts and evidence in their own defense, and thus protecting the citizen, citizen groups, activists, PACs or public officials from being abused by the commission.

SB 616
Author
Made several necessary reforms to help provide the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) the ability to work more efficiently and effectively in performing their duties. Among these reforms, the bill streamlines the state’s driver’s licensing program by enabling its eventual transition to another state agency, extends the term of a driver license from six to eight years, so citizens don’t have to renew as often, streamlines and simplifies private security regulation, and deregulates seven unnecessary and duplicative licenses and registrations for individuals and entities that do not directly provide private security services.

SB 1319
Author
Increases transparency in taxation by bolstering the reporting requirements for counties levying a hotel occupancy tax.

HB 347
Sponsor
Eliminates forced annexation across the state, ensuring annexation occurs only after obtaining the consent of the property owners involved.

HB 1313
Sponsor
Helps citizens have a more active role in helping keep their appraisals fair. HB 1313 prohibits a taxing district from “punishing” a taxpayer with a higher appraisal in the year immediately after the taxpayer successfully protests unless the appraisal district achieves a higher standard of proof.  In addition, HB 1313 prohibits appraisal districts from charging property owners a fee to file a protest

HB 1545
Sponsor
Made many necessary reforms at the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission (TABC). Innovates the state’s approach to the alcohol beverage industry by introducing “Beer to Go” for craft breweries. The bill also eliminated several protectionist’s carve-outs. It delivered free-market solutions to the issuance and regulation of liquor store permits and other alcoholic beverage industry elements.

2017

SB 4
Coauthor
Prohibits local governments from adopting “sanctuary city” policies in violation of federal immigration guidelines.

SB 5
Joint Author
Preserves election integrity by adjusting and strengthening Texas’s voter ID laws in compliance with the Constitution.

SB 7
Coauthor
Amends current state laws to more forcefully deal with inappropriate relationships between educators and students. This bill prevents educators who engage in inappropriate relationships with students from being able to jump from school district to school district without facing any consequences. It expands reporting requirements to include not only superintendents, but principals as well, with penalties for failing to report, and gave Texas Education Agency (TEA) more authority to investigate and sanction school districts who fail to report an inappropriate relationship.

SB 12
Coauthor
Supports our men and women of law enforcement by creating a program that helps abate the cost of bulletproof vests for local police.

SB 16
Coauthor
Reduced the fee for obtaining a license to carry a handgun.

SB 24
Coauthor
Protects the First Amendment rights of religious leaders by prohibiting governmental entities from compelling them to divulge the contents of their sermons in civil proceedings.

SB 524
Author
Ensures the dignity of the deceased by increasing penalties for the atrocious crime of abusing a corpse. This legislation was brought to me by constituents, stemming from a criminal case in Tarrant County that directly affected their family members. I was honored to work with them to get this passed.

SB 740; SB 741; SB 742
Coauthor
Strengthens the private property rights of Texas by constraining local governments’ eminent domain authority and ensuring citizens have more protections against an abusive taking.

SB 975
Author
Requires any future privately-operated high-speed rail system to comply with a minimum framework of safety standards to benefit rail users and Texans situated near the rail site.

SB 1893
Joint Author
Added two additional Regional Presiding Administrative Judges, for a total of eleven serving the entire state.  These Administrative Judges appoint visiting judges who hear cases in circumstances where a normally elected judicial officer has chosen to recuse him, or herself or absence occurs. They also perform other court administering functions.  Texas’ growth made nine regions too large and unworkable.  The additional judges ease the administrative workload, which better serves Texans.

SB 1542
Sponsor
Reduces the strain on Texas’ foster care system by affording foster care authorities the option of placing children in cottage home settings. This was particularly needed for foster care cases with multiple siblings to keep the siblings from being separated.