My office has spent more time on this issue than any oth­er. I have a ded­i­cat­ed pol­i­cy ana­lyst with a life­time of expe­ri­ence in envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion and water. We have worked to under­stand the unique issues that face the Hill Coun­try, includ­ing scarci­ty of water, and aggre­gate quar­ries and cement pro­duc­tion facilities.

I have filed leg­is­la­tion to address the lack of over­sight for the aggre­gate pro­duc­tion oper­a­tions and increase pro­tec­tions on the sur­round­ing prop­er­ty own­ers. These bills include:

• HB 2590 which pro­vides increased com­mu­ni­ca­tion, tax­pay­er pro­tec­tions, and bet­ter devel­op­ment prac­tices for new Munic­i­pal Util­i­ty Dis­tricts (MUDS) in the Hill Country.
• HB 2871 which would have moved  over­sight of APO per­mit­ting from the Texas Com­mis­sion on Envi­ron­men­tal Qual­i­ty (TCEQ) to the Texas Rail­road Commission.
• HB 3798 to bring coop­er­a­tion and account­abil­i­ty to the TCEQ per­mit­ting process by strength­en­ing the APO per­mit­ting process, ensur­ing pub­lic health & safe­ty, and pro­tect­ing prop­er­ty rights from the effects of rock quarries.

I have been endorsed by var­i­ous envi­ron­men­tal groups (Pre­serve Our Hill Coun­try Envi­ron­ment, Stop 3009 Vul­can Quar­ry, and Friends of Dry Comal Creek) over my 2020 demo­c­rat oppo­nent, because of the work I have already done and the con­tin­ued efforts by my office going forward. 

Since being elect­ed to office, pro­tect­ing and pre­serv­ing the hero­ic sac­ri­fice of the defend­ers of the Alamo has been my high­est pri­or­i­ty. I fought for the Alamo Ceno­taph to remain where it is and filed HB 1836 to take con­trol of the fate of the Cenotaph.

Thank­ful­ly, the Texas His­tor­i­cal Com­mis­sion denied the per­mit for the Ceno­taph to be moved off the Alamo Plaza in Sep­tem­ber 2020. But there is still more to be done, and I am fil­ing leg­is­la­tion to again pro­tect the Ceno­taph and address the mis­man­age­ment and poor vision of the Alamo Mas­ter Plan.

Oth­er than fam­i­ly and church, a child’s edu­ca­tion is the most impor­tant influ­ence on their lives and is crit­i­cal to the future of Texas. Covid-19 has cer­tain­ly exposed the weak­ness­es and strengths of our pub­lic edu­ca­tion sys­tem. Choice in edu­ca­tion has become even more nec­es­sary to help those stu­dents that are not per­form­ing well and to strength­en those that are thriv­ing in the pub­lic schools. I sup­port char­ter schools that com­ple­ment ISD’s and improve the pub­lic edu­ca­tion system.

Fed­er­al and State man­dates, such as the one-size-fits-all approach, are hurt­ing our stu­dents and tying the hands of our teach­ers and admin­is­tra­tors. We need to pro­mote more local con­trol of our schools and focus resources towards our teach­ers and stu­dents. That is why I filed HB 3759 in the 85th Leg­isla­tive Ses­sion that would have made all unfund­ed man­dates on our schools optional.

It is impor­tant to bring more equi­ty and fair­ness to pub­lic school finance. We must focus on solu­tions that keep more local dol­lars in the dis­trict that they orig­i­nate from, while also shar­ing with dis­tricts that have less tax­able val­ue. That is why I have filed HB 729 in the 86th Leg­isla­tive Ses­sion to help schools unfair­ly affect­ed by Robin Hood to get their fair share of fund­ing per student.

I have always been an unwa­ver­ing sup­port­er of the 2nd Amend­ment, and will con­tin­ue as such. As a FFL deal­er in firearms, I sell a full line of hand­guns, rifles, and ammu­ni­tion. I believe it is our right to pro­tect our­selves and our fam­i­lies from harm. I will con­tin­ue to sup­port any and all leg­is­la­tion that pro­tects, pro­motes and restores our Sec­ond Amend­ment rights.

This is why I Joint-Authored HB 357 dur­ing the 86th Leg­isla­tive Ses­sion to give Texas Con­sti­tu­tion­al Car­ry and I have com­mit­ted to fil­ing Con­sti­tu­tion­al Car­ry in the 87th Leg­isla­tive Session.

I also Co-Authored HB 302 which pro­vides pro­tec­tions for gun own­ers who live in apart­ment com­plex­es and con­dos by pro­hibit­ing land­lords from restrict­ing gun pos­ses­sion by ten­ants.

Oth­er Pro-2nd Amend­ment leg­is­la­tion I sup­port­ed includes HB 1177 which allows gun own­ers to car­ry dur­ing dis­as­ter evac­u­a­tions, and HB 121 which pro­vides a defense for licensed gun own­ers for mis­tak­en­ly enter­ing a “no guns allowed” establishment.

The more respon­si­ble gun own­ers that we have across Texas, the more it will help pro­tect all of us.

There is noth­ing more impor­tant than the sanc­ti­ty of inno­cent life. It is a gift from our Cre­ator and must be protected.

I am endorsed by Texas Right to Life, Tex­ans for Life, and Pro-Life Tex­ans (a Human Coali­tion PAC) for my pro-life vot­ing record.

I will always unapolo­get­i­cal­ly stand to pro­tect human life, which is why I signed on as a coau­thor to HB 896 filed by Rep. Tin­der­holt in the 86th Leg­isla­tive Ses­sion to pro­hib­it abor­tion and pro­tect the rights of an unborn child.

I co-authored the Born Alive Act, HB 16, which says doc­tors who fail to pro­vide the appro­pri­ate med­ical treat­ment to babies born alive after a failed abor­tion would be charged with a third-degree felony.

I also oppose the use of any tax dol­lars being used to fund Planned Par­ent­hood. We must redi­rect those tax dol­lars to expand fund­ing for actu­al women’s health providers that do not per­form abortions.

I Co-Spon­sored SB 22, the “No Tax­pay­er Fund­ing for Abor­tion Act”, which pro­hibits state and local tax dol­lars from fund­ing or ben­e­fit­ting the abor­tion industry.

In the most recent State Bud­get for the 2020–2021 Bien­ni­um, I supported:

• Amend­ment 52 by Krause which increas­es the Pro-Life Alter­na­tives to Abor­tion pro­gram bud­get by $52 mil­lion over the 2020–21 biennium.
• Amend­ment 53 by Krause, Klick, Pat­ter­son, Stick­land, and Oliv­er­son to per­fect and clar­i­fy the $52 mil­lion bud­get increase for the Pro-Life Alter­na­tives to Abor­tion program.
• Amend­ment 287 by Swan­son which pro­hibits state fund­ing for hos­pi­tals that pro­vide elec­tive abortions.

Our coun­try was found­ed on Chris­t­ian prin­ci­ples which are clear­ly stat­ed in our Con­sti­tu­tion and in the writ­ings of our found­ing fathers. As a Chris­t­ian con­ser­v­a­tive, I will whole­heart­ed­ly and unapolo­get­i­cal­ly defend those val­ues and our free­dom of religion.

Under the guise of “sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion and gen­der iden­ti­ty,” a num­ber of bills have been filed to cre­ate more gov­ern­ment con­trol and pow­er over the free­dom of expres­sion of bib­li­cal beliefs, forc­ing peo­ple of faith to con­form to per­son­al and polit­i­cal agen­das that con­tra­dict their reli­gious beliefs.

I will con­tin­ue to fight against any and all infringe­ments on your reli­gious free­doms. I Co-Authored the ‘Chick-fil‑A’ bill, SB 1978, that pro­hibits the gov­ern­ment from tak­ing adverse action against any indi­vid­u­als or busi­ness­es based on mem­ber­ship, sup­port or dona­tions to reli­gious groups.

We have been for­tu­nate to have a pres­i­dent who takes the secu­ri­ty of our bor­der seri­ous­ly. But since the US Con­gress has con­tin­ued to be a fail­ure in pass­ing immi­gra­tion leg­is­la­tion, Texas still needs to take con­trol of its own border.

This is why I filed HB 4306 in the 86th Leg­isla­tive Ses­sion to address the cri­sis along the Texas — Mex­i­co bor­der which passed the House with bi-par­ti­san sup­port. This bill would have allowed for a pilot pro­gram to study what infra­struc­ture and tech­nol­o­gy works best to pro­tect our bor­der from nar­cotics, human traf­fick­ing, and ille­gal entries, as well as expand brush clear­ing and water­shed restoration.

It is past time to end the mag­nets that attract ille­gal immi­grants to Texas, like in-state tuition. Cur­rent­ly in Texas, ille­gal immi­grants qual­i­fy for in-state tuition based on how cur­rent res­i­den­cy require­ments are writ­ten in Texas State Law. Mag­net poli­cies that ben­e­fit ille­gal immi­grants hurt Texas cit­i­zens and we must remove these mag­nets and pro­tect our bor­der. That is why I filed HB 413 in the 86th Leg­isla­tive Ses­sion to end in-state tuition for ille­gal aliens.

I am com­mit­ted to fis­cal respon­si­bil­i­ty and reduc­ing gov­ern­ment spend­ing and the tax bur­den on the peo­ple of Texas.

I was proud to Co-Author HJR 38 that says Texas would not have an income tax in the Texas Constitution.

The num­ber one con­cern that I have heard across Texas is that prop­er­ty tax­es are sky­rock­et­ing, and peo­ple are being forced out of their homes and busi­ness­es. Find­ing an alter­na­tive source of rev­enue to replace all or part of the prop­er­ty tax is dif­fi­cult; how­ev­er, new sources of rev­enue with­out con­trol­ling gov­ern­ment spend­ing will not be beneficial.

Dur­ing the 86th Leg­isla­tive Ses­sion, I sup­port­ed SB 2 which capped the amount that a city can raise your prop­er­ty tax­es, with­out vot­er approval, to 3.5%, down from the cur­rent 8%.

Real Prop­er­ty tax relief, not just reform, is nec­es­sary and must begin with a reduc­tion in spend­ing at all lev­els of gov­ern­ment includ­ing state, local, and pub­lic edu­ca­tion.  I will also con­tin­ue to sup­port state spend­ing cap legislation.

I am proud to have filed HJR 98, the only term lim­it leg­is­la­tion in the 86th ses­sion. Fif­teen oth­er states have term lim­its, and they have found it helped to reduce the size of gov­ern­ment. If Term Lim­its were good enough for George Wash­ing­ton and oth­er great lead­ers, then I think Texas will do just fine fol­low­ing the same prin­ci­ples. Term lim­its will be the cat­a­lyst to start sub­stan­tive, long last­ing change in how our gov­ern­ment oper­ates for the peo­ple and by the people. 

In the 85th Leg­isla­tive Ses­sion I was proud to have Co-Authored and vot­ed for HB 3976, ensur­ing ade­quate fund­ing to TRS-Care, and vot­ed for an addi­tion­al $212 mil­lion dol­lars to reduce TRS-Care pre­mi­ums and deductibles in HB 21 dur­ing the spe­cial session.

I  also filed an amend­ment to HB 22 which would have cre­at­ed an anony­mous, statewide sur­vey to cov­er teacher sat­is­fac­tion, the effec­tive­ness of pro­grams avail­able to pub­lic school stu­dents, and the allo­ca­tion of school resources.

I vot­ed for all bills and amend­ments relat­ed to the wel­fare of our retired teach­ers that were sup­port­ed by TRTA includ­ing: HB 3976, SB 1663, and SB 1664; includ­ing the State Bud­get that pro­vid­ed sup­ple­men­tal state fund­ing of $182.6M for TSR-Care.

Dur­ing the most recent 86th Leg­isla­tive Ses­sion, I was proud to Co-Author SB 12 giv­ing a cost of liv­ing increase to our Texas Retired Teachers.

Hon­or­ing our Vet­er­ans, Mil­i­tary, Law Enforce­ment and First Respon­ders with the ben­e­fits and recog­ni­tion they have earned and deserve must be a last­ing com­mit­ment by the State of Texas.

Pro­vid­ing mean­ing­ful employ­ment to our vet­er­ans when they return is the first step in end­ing the scourge of veteran’s suicide.

With two daugh­ters in the Navy, a father in law who is a 100% dis­abled vet­er­an and a father who is a retired Army Colonel, I have a strong com­mit­ment to our heroes.