Lawmakers reacted positively to the University of Texas System regents' unanimous vote to turn over requested documents to legislators, but they also indicated that tensions between the system and the Capitol have not been laid to rest. Board Chairman Gene Powell had previously asked Attorney General Greg Abbott for an opinion on whether the board had to turn over all records lawmakers had requested, a move that angered many elected officials. The regents also voted to ask the attorney general to conduct a review of a controversial and now-defunct forgivable loan program run by the University of Texas Law School Foundation.

An ambitious plan to spend $6 billion from the state’s Rainy Day Fund while also setting the stage for a serious debate in the remaining weeks of the session on whether to tap the fund for public education was uncorked this week by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands. His proposal for a constitutional amendment would ask Texas voters to approve spending $3.5 billion on transportation projects and $2.5 billion on water projects. The comptroller’s office has projected the fund, fed largely by taxes on the state’s oil and gas production, will grow to $11.8 billion by the end of the next biennium. By putting it in a constitutional amendment, the proposal would leave to voters whether they want to allow state spending to exceed a cap on growth.

State Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, delivered an impassioned plea in support of what threatens to become a beleaguered tax credit scholarship plan during a hearing on his legislation. "We are great enough in this state to do this thing if we just knock down some barriers of people who are against opportunity and competition because they always have been," he said. Currently, those barriers likely include the Texas House, where lawmakers recently made their opposition to the issue clear when they overwhelmingly passed an amendment to the state budget aimed at banning private school vouchers — which nine out of 10 members of the lower chamber's education committee voted for — and possibly members of Patrick's own party in the Senate.

Doubling down on their vows to focus on border security before considering immigration reform, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, filed legislation  that will further scrutinize how well the federal government protects the U.S.-Mexico border. They talked about the need for more drones and other technology to help secure the border, and said strict deadlines should be in place for the Department of Homeland Security to reach such goals.

Texans who apply for unemployment benefits could be subject to drug testing under a measure the Senate approved unanimously. Senate Bill 21 would require applicants for unemployment benefits to take a drug test if their responses to a screening questionnaire raise red flags that indicate drug use.