Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday announced that he will lead a delegation to Havana, Cuba next week to talk travel, trade and exports. “Opening the door to business with Texas will expand free enterprise and the freedom that flows from it. I look forward to expanding business opportunities for both Texas and Cuba,” Abbott said in a statement.
The visit is Abbott’s second international trip as governor, and it comes after President Obama this summer announced that the U.S. was re-establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who is charging hard for the Republican presidential nomination, has called Obama’s decision a tragic mistake. Cruz’s father fled Cuba’s dictatorial regime in the 1950s. But other Texans have welcomed the thawing relations, including a delegation of business leaders who visited Cuba in April to discuss trade.
- Greg Abbott tells mayors they can't ban guns in city halls.
Texas mayors cannot prohibit the concealed carry of handguns in city halls and other government buildings even if they contain security-sensitive areas such as courtrooms, according to Gov. Greg Abbott. Abbott, the former attorney general, last month told his successor Ken Paxton that under a new law that went into effect Sept. 1, city, county and agency leaders must allow concealed handgun license holders to carry their weapons into government buildings. The Abbott memo was sent in response to letters from Hays and Tom Green County officials asking Paxton to clarify when and where they can continue to ban concealed carry in their facilities.
- Greg Abbott’s pension board pick draws protests from labor.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s choice to lead the Texas Pension Review Board has drawn sharp criticism from labor organizations that equated the appointment to a betrayal of trust by the governor. Abbott tapped Josh McGee on Monday, lauding the Houston economist as a leading national expert on retirement policy — a fine fit for a board that reviews the health of public retirement systems, studies potential problems and recommends solutions. Josh McGee was named to lead the Texas Pension Review Board by Gov. Greg Abbott. A dozen labor groups representing police and firefighters, however, quickly called on Abbott to rescind the appointment, calling McGee one of the state’s harshest critics of public pensions.
- Greg Abbott and faith groups head toward showdown on Syrian refugees.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s office appears headed toward a legal showdown with refugee resettlement agencies and their sponsoring faith organizations over Abbott’s efforts to keep any Syrian refugees from resettling in Texas in the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks. Following Abbott’s directive, Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Chris Traylor on Thursday sent a toughly worded letter to 19 refugee resettlement agencies in Texas — including Caritas and the Refugee Services of Texas in Austin — asking that they scrap any plans to resettle Syrian refugees in Texas and that they notify his office by 4 p.m. Friday if they had any plans to resettle Syrians in the state.
After consulting with a number of the resettlement agencies and representatives of their sponsoring religious denominations, Bee Moorhead, executive director of Texas Impact, an umbrella group for Christian, Jewish and Muslim faith groups, wrote Traylor a letter Friday expressing their “shock and dismay,” describing his letter as “an unprecedented attempt on the part of a state agency to pressure private, nonprofit organizations to violate federal law and their federal contractual obligations.” By directing the agencies to refuse to resettle Syrians, Moorhead said that Abbott and Traylor are asking the agencies to violate federal anti-discrimination statues, and “we cannot imagine how any organization could contemplate complying with HHSC’s directive without first obtaining legal counsel.”
