Members of El Paso’s legislative delegation aim to decriminalize marijuana, ban toll roads
Texas legislators will soon convene in Austin for the start of the 86th Legislative Session.
This week — many state reps and senators, including those in the El Paso delegation, began filing bills.
Here’s a brief rundown of what each of them has filed:
Rep. Joe Moody, (D) Dist. 78, which covers part of the Northeast and Upper Valley, wants to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.
Joe Pickett, (D) Dist. 79, which covers East and Far East El Paso, wants to ban toll roads on the newly constructed Loop 375 from Racetrack in the Upper Valley to U.S. 54.
Rep. Mary González, (D) Dist. 75, which oversees much of the Lower Valley and Far East El Paso County, wants to decrease maternal mortality by providing moms and their children statewide transportation to prenatal and postpartum appointments.
A bill by Lina Ortega, (D) Dist. 77, which represents part of West and Northeast El Paso, would mandate all public higher education institutions to notify all students through email about state-run women’s health care programs.
And Rep. Cesar Blanco, (D) Dist. 76, whose district includes the Lower Valley and East El Paso, filed a bill to require schools to provide local law enforcement agencies certain information regarding certain individuals authorized to carry a handgun on a campus.
State Sen. Jose Rodriguez, (D) Dist. 29, filed numerous bills regarding education — namely, one asking for one of Texas’ university systems to look into establishing a law school in El Paso.
Each of El Paso’s legislators has filed numerous bills — see them and all the bills that have been filed in the state House and Senate.
There’s no telling if these bills will get to the governor’s desk, though.
Consider that more than 350 bills in the House and 150 in the Senate have already been filed as of Wednesday, and there are estimates that more than a 100,000 will be submitted before the March deadline.
Gov. Greg Abbott only signed about a thousand bills into law during the 2017 session.
The 2019 legislative session begins on Jan. 8.
