The Texas Legislature is midway through the third week of Special Session No.1 and activity has slowed to a halt in the House as Texas House Democrats have left the state to oppose the congressional redistricting plan. Texas Impact's Bee Moorhead joins the program to give us the latest and talk about how Texans of faith can help encourage conversations about community rather than what we are currently seeing. Join Texas Impact's Rapid Response Team on the Action Center of our website to recieve a link to attend Marching Order Mondays with Scott and Bee. Join the conversation each week during the special session.
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Ep. 445 An Ounce of Prevention...
The Texas Legislature is nearing the end of the second week of the special session, but in this episode, we want to focus on the Thursday July 31 hearing in Kerrville, TX that focused on the July 4 flooding in Central Texas. Our listeners will remember seeing the news from that day, and our prayers certainly go out to all who were impacted. We hope our prayers are also for leaders to do the work necessary to minimize loss in future disasters and to examine what went wrong and how we need to respond to keep this from happening again. Joining us for the conversation are two Texas Impact staff leading our Climate Action Team, Rev. Dr. Becca Edwards, Texas Impact's Climate Action Fellow and Ava Burkhalter, an intern and researcher with the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program. To get involved and join the Climate Action Team visit the Action Center of our website. texasimpact.org/action-center Find out more about the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program at www.southernclimate.org/about
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Ep. 444 "Communities of Interest"
The Texas Legislature is back in Austin for a special session to consider a number of issues the governor has identified, chief among them congressional redistricting. Texas Impact does not take a position on the partisan makeup of those districts, but does believe that it is important that communities are a part of the process. Joining us this week for a thoughtful discussion of redistricting is friend of the program Beaman Floyd, Texas Impact's outside legislative counsel. Get invloved by joining Texas Impact's Rapid Response team to recieve action alerts at texasimpact.org/action-center
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Ep. 443 Session Wrap-up: Healthcare
In our last episode of our legislative wrap-up series before the special session we welcome Diana Forester, Director of Health Policy with Texans Care for Children to talk about where the Texas Legislature landed on all things health. We recorded in mid-June, and so we touched briefly on action at the federal level and how it would impact Texas, but trust that we will have more content that dives into more detail in the coming weeks. The goal of this series is to be a resource for Texans of faith to understand what happened in the legislative session and use it as a tool as we move into election season next year. Find out more about the work of Texans Care for Children at txchildren.org
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Ep. 442 Session Wrap-up: Climate and Energy
This week's episode is another installment of our legislative wrap-up series as we welcome Adrian Shelley, Texas Director of Public Citizen to talk about the wins and the continued work we need to do on climate and energy policy. We recorded in mid-June, and a lot has gone on in the world since, but the goal of this series is to be a resource for Texans of faith to understand what happened in the 89th legislative session and utilize it as we move into election season next year. Find out more about the work of Public Citizen Texas at www.citizen.org/tags/texas and on social media.
Weekly Witness is your weekly update on the mainstream faith community’s perspective on everything Texas public policy. Hosted by Texas Impact's Scott Atnip, Weekly Witness is recorded in front of a live audience in downtown Austin. We host policy experts, faith leaders, and elected officials who provide in-depth information on relevant policy issues in the state. Weekly Witness is a product of Texas Impact, Texas’ oldest and largest interfaith advocacy group. Visit texasimpact.org for more information.
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