Texas Needs to Address Overreliance of Long-Term Solitary Confinement of Incarcerated Persons

Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Right on Crime project published the paper Reining in Solitary Confinement in Texas: Recent Progress and Next Steps. “Solitary confinement constitutes a significant deprivation of liberty for those who have already been segregated from society and must be carefully scrutinized,” said Marc Levin, the paper’s author. “In the last decade,...

Press Release January 29, 2021

TPPF Welcomes Josh Jones as Senior Fellow for Border Security

Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation announced Josh Jones has joined the Foundation’s Right on Immigration efforts as a senior fellow specializing in border security. “Within his first week in office, President Biden signed an executive order that would, if allowed to go into effect, result in an unprecedented humanitarian crisis at our country’s southern...

Press Release January 29, 2021

TPPF: Local Debt Soars to $376 Billion

The Bond Review Board’s newly released dataset reveals that local governments continue to borrow heavily. According to the agency, debt owed by cities, counties, school districts, and special districts grew to a total of $375.7 billion in fiscal year 2020, an increase of almost $50 billion since 2016. On a per capita basis, local governments...

Press Release January 28, 2021

Life:Powered Opposes President Biden’s Climate Executive Orders

The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Life:Powered project announced opposition to President Joe Biden’s “Climate Day” executive orders. “President Biden’s executive overreach will grow government, hurt responsible energy producers, and make the energy we need expensive and scarce — damaging every sector of our economy,” said Jason Isaac, director of Life:Powered. “What’s even worse is that...

Press Release January 27, 2021

TPPF Supports Texas AG ’s Action to Stop Biden’s Unlawful Immigration Order

The Texas Public Policy Foundation commends the actions of the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for seeking judicial review of Biden’s Executive Order freezing lawful deportation of undocumented individuals for 100 days. “Biden’s executive order pen does not allow him to violate federal law, which the Court correctly found does not allow the President to...

Press Release January 27, 2021

New Paper Identifies Policy Solutions to Improve Texas’s Corrections System

Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Right on Crime campaign published the paper Prisons and Penny-Pinching: Finding Budget Savings in the Time of COVID-19. “In light of projected budgetary shortfalls due to suppressed economic activity, Texas state officials called for some agencies and institutions, including the Department of Criminal Justice, to identify savings of 5% in...

Press Release January 26, 2021

Texas Jobs Report Shows Improvement in Unemployment Rate

Today, the Texas Workforce Commission released the state jobs report for Dec. 2020 in which the Texas unemployment rate fell from 8.1% in Nov. 2020 to 7.2%.   “Today’s jobs report for Texas shows some good news for workers and employers in December as employment increased for the eighth straight month and as the unemployment rate dropped to 7.2%,” said TPPF’s Chief Economist Vance...

Press Release January 22, 2021

TPPF Commends Gov. Abbott’s Commitment to Public Safety

Following Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s roundtable discussing public safety issues, the Texas Public Policy Foundation and its Citizens Defense and Right on Crime campaigns commend the Governor for his support in providing police officers with the best possible training and funding to ensure “a safer future for the state of Texas,” Randy Petersen, Senior Researcher with the Citizens Defense Campaign:...

Press Release January 21, 2021

Proposed 2022-23 Budgets Within TPPF’s Conservative Texas Budget

Today, the Texas House and Senate introduced their versions of the 2022-23 budget. The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Chief Economist Vance Ginn, Ph.D. offered the following statement: “At a time when many Texas families and employers are struggling financially across the state, we are glad to see the Texas Legislature come together to introduce a...

Press Release January 21, 2021

TPPF Chief Economist Offers Analysis of Biennial Review Estimate

Today, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar released the Biennial Revenue Estimate (BRE) which tells the Legislature the amount of taxpayer dollars available to fund various programs like public safety, education, and health care during the upcoming session which begins Jan. 12. “Given the COVID-19 pandemic and business shutdowns by state and local governments, the Comptroller’s budget forecast, while...

Press Release January 11, 2021

TPPF Lauds Focus on Improving Medicaid, Not Expanding It

Following remarks regarding Medicaid reform by the presumptive Speaker of the House Rep. Dade Phelan, the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Director of Right on Healthcare released the following statement: “We applaud the presumptive speaker for his focus on improving Medicaid for eligible recipients, rather than making disastrous reforms to expand the broken program to able-bodied adults. There...

Press Release January 11, 2021

McCaul, Texas Public Policy Foundation Lead Election Protection Project

Today, Congressman Michael McCaul (TX-10) and the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) announced the Election Protection Project. McCaul and TPPF’s Executive Director Kevin Roberts gave the following statement after the announcement of the project: “The United States is a beacon of hope and sets the standard of democracy for those around the world. As Americans,...

Press Release January 5, 2021