Current Articles for March 06, 2025

The Legislative Reference Library produces a weekly list of current journal articles for members of the legislative community. Each week, librarians select and abstract articles of interest to the legislature from the latest issues of over 300 journals, newsletters, state documents, and trade publications. Electronic copies of the Current Articles list are distributed to legislative offices each Thursday.

The Legislative Reference Library is located on the second floor of the State Capitol building in Room 2N.3. For more information, please call the Library at 512-463-1252.

• Continued increases in TANF benefit levels are critical to helping families meet their needs and thrive (2025). By Diana Azevedo-McCaffrey and Tonanziht Aguas. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Updated February 26, 2025, pp. 1-15.
  Explains state flexibility to increase benefit levels and establish cost-of-living adjustments for beneficiaries of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the federal cash assistance program for low-income families. Identifies Texas as one of the states that raised TANF cash benefits between July 2022 and July 2023 and includes state charts.
  See: https://www.cbpp.org/sites/default/files/5-29-24tanf_rev2-26-25_0.pdf
  
• Policymakers can solve homelessness by scaling up proven solutions: Rental assistance and supportive services (2025). By Anna Bailey, Peggy Bailey, and Erik Gartland. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Updated February 27, 2025, pp. 1-19.
  Explores the recent steep increase in homelessness in the U.S. and outlines affordable housing policy strategies to pair rental assistance with improvements to the health and social service systems. Mentions Texas.
  See: https://www.cbpp.org/sites/default/files/6-12-24hous-0_rev2-27-25.pdf
  
• More states are moving to ban cellphones at schools. Should they? By Lauraine Langreo and Arianna Prothero. Education Week, February 19, 2025, pp. 8-9.
  Discusses how some states have banned cellphones in schools or restricted use in the classroom. Considers public perception of cellphone bans in schools and a lack of research about whether the bans accomplish the desired effects.
  See: https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=7444a3e3-3979-3a1b-863d-8cbcedb3ec11
  
• Dr. Barnes: Texas faces a costly diabetes crisis, but lawmakers have an opportunity to make prevention, not just treatment, the priority in 2025. Episcopal Health Foundation, January 28, 2025, pp. 1-2.
  Calls on the 89th Legislature to make diabetes prevention a legislative priority. Praises Senator Kolkhorst's work in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee in 2024.
  See: https://www.episcopalhealth.org/enews/dr-barnes-texas-faces-a-costly-diabetes-crisis-but-lawmakers-h ...
  
• Protecting privacy when genetic databases are commercialized. By Anya E.R. Prince and Kayte Spector-Bagdady. JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), February 25, 2025, pp. 665-666.
  Considers whether and how much consumer data is protected in the context of commercial genetic databases, such as 23andMe. Argues for consumer data privacy protection.
  See: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2829037#google_vignette
  
• South Dakota standing firm for property rights and food security. By Rebecca Terrell. New American, March 10, 2025, pp. 28-29.
  Considers how carbon dioxide sequestration plans involving pipelines may negatively affect landowners and their property rights. Discusses a movement in South Dakota to legislatively prevent the use of eminent domain for pipelines that carry carbon dioxide.
• Industrial building boom is bigger in Texas, signaling growth wave. By Jesse Thompson and Prithvi Kalkunte. Southwest Economy (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas), February 5, 2025, pp. 1-7.
  Discusses the increase in technology and energy-related construction in Texas. Charts spending on private semiconductor and data center construction in the state from 2017-2023, as well as Texas' share of construction contracts.
  See: https://www.dallasfed.org/research/swe/2025/swe2501
  
• TEA commissioner discusses school funding, teacher pay, academic outcomes in House committee hearing. By Cameron Abrams. Texan, February 26, 2025, pp. 1-4.
  Details Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath's testimony on Tuesday, February 25, to the House Committee on Public Education. Notes that Morath discussed issues including student assessments and outcomes, school finance, and teacher quality and retention.
  See: https://thetexan.news/issues/education/tea-commissioner-discusses-school-funding-teacher-pay-academi ...
  
• Texas Lottery accused of 'conspiracy,' 'organized crime' in legislative hearings. By Cameron Abrams. Texan, February 25, 2025, pp. 1-4.
  Discusses recent legislative scrutiny of the Texas Lottery, Texas Lottery Commission, and lottery courier companies. Mentions SB 28 and HB 389, 89th Legislature.
  See: https://thetexan.news/issues/criminal-justice/texas-lottery-accused-of-conspiracy-organized-crime-in ...
  
• Ready students, ready schools: How the legislature should support early learning this session. By Lauren McKenzie. Texans Care for Children, February 2025, pp. 1-5.
  Discusses the benefits of early childhood education for later school success. Advocates that the Legislature prioritize early learning, particularly early literacy and math, and address funding disparities for pre-K and students with disabilities. Includes four key conditions for ready schools: high-quality educators, classroom environment, strategic leadership, and students' transition to school.
  See: https://txchildren.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Ready-Students-Ready-Schools-Brief.pdf
  
• Delivering collaboration. By Jessica Ridge and Amy Lynn Sorrel. Texas Medicine, March/April 2025, pp. 38-41.
  Suggests that birthing centers, guided by collaboration between physicians and nurse midwives, may be able to fill Texas' maternal care deserts.
  See: https://www.texmed.org/DeliveringCollaboration/
  
• Abbott's border splurge. By Justin Miller. Texas Observer, March/April 2025, pp. 22-31.
  Presents an in-depth look at Texas' spending on Operation Lone Star, which was launched by Governor Greg Abbott in 2021 to increase security at the Mexican border. Notes that the spending has come without the typical guardrails of state procurement laws meant to protect against waste and grift, and with little oversight from the Legislature.
• 'It's demoralizing': Trump's climate funding freeze has left tribes and community groups in limbo. By Naveena Sadasivam. Texas Observer, February 13, 2025, pp. 1-3.
  Presents an update on how the Trump administration's federal funding freeze has impacted Native American tribes and community groups hoping to fund projects that protect citizens from extreme weather and other side effects of climate change. Notes that despite recent court orders to release federal grants, many organizations working on climate projects still cannot access contractually obligated money.
  See: https://www.texasobserver.org/climate-funding-freeze-tribes-community-groups/
  
• Making it worse. By Gavin Yamey. Time, February 24, 2025, pp. 23-24.
  Outlines the repercussions of the Trump administration's freeze on almost all U.S. foreign aid. Lists examples of programs and services that are affected by the freeze, including distribution of lifesaving medical supplies and prevention and treatment of deadly infectious diseases, most consequentially the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
  See: https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=f8dec8df-cbc1-32e2-a0b8-b246280e6a5a
  
• Shaken baby syndrome and science: The wrongful conviction of Andrew Roark. By Gary Udashen. Voice for the Defense, January/February 2025, pp. 22-25.
  Discusses the case of Andrew Roark, a Texas man convicted of shaking his girlfriend's infant daughter to death, whose conviction was overturned in 2024. Describes post-conviction litigation and how new science led to the vacating of the conviction. Expresses hope that the opinion from the Court of Criminal Appeals will pave the way for others wrongly convicted under the now-debunked theory of shaken baby syndrome.