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The Texas Capitol is pictured here in an undated photo. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Two bills making their way through each chamber of the Texas legislature could impose new oversight and regulation on district attorneys across the state, with several advocates naming Travis County prosecutor Jos Garza as a specific target.

Since the legislative session began, top Republicans have said they want to "rein in" what they call 'rogue DAs' by filing legislation that would obligate them to pursue and prosecute all criminal offenses.

In recent years, some Texas district attorneys, including Garza, have opted not to pursue criminal cases for certain offenses. Perhaps most prominently, several attorneys nationwide signed an open letter, saying they would not pursue criminal charges for abortion-related cases. Some prosecutors have publicly stated they would not pursue charges of low-level thefts or first-time marijuana offenses.

"The legislature and the governor are asserting the primacy of state government, and that is a big change," said James Henson, the director of the Texas Politics Project an organization based at the University of Texas at Austin working to increase Texans' political engagement.

Two priority bills, Senate Bill 20 and House Bill 17, could pave the way for district attorneys to be removed from office if they don't choose to prosecute all criminal offenses.

"Unfortunately, certain Texas prosecutors have joined a trend of adopting internal policies, refusing to prosecute particular laws," state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-District 17 one of the senate bill's authors said in a Senate committee hearing earlier this month.

This week, the Senate committee voted to move S.B. 20 out of committee, and it could be approved by the full chamber as early as Monday.

H.B. 17, filed by Rep. David Cook, R-District 96, does the same as S.B. 20 and lays out the legal proceedings of removing a district attorney from office would happen through a jury trial. That bill has not yet faced a committee vote.

Several law enforcement advocates and stakeholders spoke in favor of the bill, with many naming the Travis County District Attorney's office as part of the problem.

District attorneys are elected positions and usually have a political party affiliation. That party affiliation has brought scrutiny on a national scale with narratives on both sides of the aisle arguing the criminal justice system is increasingly tied to politics.

Critics of the policies, including the ACLU of Texas, told lawmakers they were concerned forcing district attorneys out of office undermines the will of voters, who democratically elected those prosecutors to office.

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Texas Republicans look to 'rein in' elected attorneys across the state - ABC NEWS 4

Martha Casamayor, center, says Joe Biden "stabbed Cuban Americans in the back" and regrets voting for him. South Florida Latinos like her are key to Republicans expanding their political reach in future elections. Claudia Grisales/NPR hide caption

Martha Casamayor, center, says Joe Biden "stabbed Cuban Americans in the back" and regrets voting for him. South Florida Latinos like her are key to Republicans expanding their political reach in future elections.

Republicans did not see the red wave they were betting on during last year's midterms, so now they're setting their sights on expanding success stories that did break through, such as the big gains they made in South Florida.

The largely conservative Latino community in Miami-Dade County turned red last year for the first time in two decades.

Who are they? The Latino community in South Florida is largely conservative, and includes immigrants from Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela and other Latin American countries.

What's the big deal? South Florida marks a community where politics seemingly never sleeps. And it's also where the political ground game for 2024 is already underway.

Want to learn more? Listen to the NPR Politics podcast episode on how Latino GOP voters have embraced the culture war.

What are people saying?

Casamayor on Democrats:

(Biden) stabbed Cuban Americans in the back ... The Biden administration has betrayed the Cuban Americans ... He has betrayed the Cuban Americans who voted for him.

Cooper on hearing from different Republican Election Committees, or REC, asking about the Miami-Dade County model:

We take that message across across the county and soon will take it across the country as we explain to different RECs and different parties how to build their operations.

Mucarsel-Powell on why Democrats shouldn't give up on Florida:

If you care about the environment, you need to care about Florida. If you care about minority groups, if you care about Latinos, you need to care about Florida. And we've been abandoned.

Gamarra on Republican successes in South Florida:

Republicans understand better the idea of the Latino American dream and Democrats still, for the most part, approach Latinos as part of the civil rights struggle in the United States.

So, what now?

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Latino voters in South Florida hold key to Republican political future - NPR

Here are a few of the things the Republican Party is prepared to do to protect children.

The Republican Party in states like Tennessee, Oklahoma and Kentucky is prepared to ban or strictly limit the public performance of drag and other gender-nonconforming behavior.

This bill gives confidence to parents that they can take their kids to a public or private show and will not be blindsided by a sexualized performance, Jack Johnson, the Senate majority leader in Tennessee and one of the sponsors of the states ban, wrote on Twitter.

I cant think of anything good that can come from taking children and putting them in front of a bunch of grown men who are dressed like women, said Gary Stubblefield, an Arkansas state senator who wants to enact a similar ban there.

The Republican Party is prepared to ban or strictly limit discussion of L.G.B.T.Q. people and identities in public schools, as well as transgender health care for minors, to protect them from what they say is manipulation and abuse.

We dont want parents to be abusing their children, said Shay Shelnutt, an Alabama state senator whose bill to restrict teaching and ban care was signed into law last year. We dont want to make that an option, because thats what it is; its child abuse. This is just to protect children.

The Republican Party is prepared to extend this circle of protection to discussions of race and American history in public schools so-called critical race theory to protect students from guilt, shame, discomfort and any other negative emotion. Critical race theory is a divisive ideology that threatens to poison the American psyche, Dan Bishop, a state representative in North Carolina, said when he introduced the Stop CRT Act in 2021. For the sake of our childrens future, we must stop this effort to cancel the truth of our founding and our country.

And the Republican Party is prepared to strictly limit or even ban social media, over concern that platforms like TikTok and Instagram may harm the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents. We protect our children from drinking, from smoking, from driving, said Representative Chris Stewart of Utah, who has introduced a bill that would make social media companies legally liable if they fail to keep kids under 16 off their websites and applications. They cant drive when theyre 12. We should protect them from the impacts of social media.

There is a lot, in other words, that the Republican Party is prepared to do to protect children from the world at large. But there are limits. There are lines the Republican Party wont cross.

The Republican Party will not, for example, support universal school lunch to protect children from hunger. When Minnesota Democrats pushed the measure in the most recent session of the states Legislature, for example, one of their Republican colleagues strenuously objected. I have yet to meet a person in Minnesota that says they dont have access to enough food to eat, Steve Drazkowski, a state senator, said. He, like most Republicans in the Legislature, voted against the bill.

In the United States Congress, most Republicans will not support a child allowance to keep children, and their families, out of poverty. On the question of health care, there are 10 states Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Wyoming where Republicans have refused the Medicaid expansion passed under the Affordable Care Act, depriving millions of Americans, including many children, of access to regular medical care.

And in the wake of yet another school massacre in Nashville, where a shooter killed three adults and three children at a private Christian school Republicans refuse to do anything that might reduce the odds of another shooting or make it less likely that a child dies of gun violence.

There isnt anybody here that, if they could find the right approach, wouldnt try to do something because they feel that pain, said Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota in an interview with CNNs Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday. And yet when we start talking about bans or challenging on the Second Amendment, I think the things that have already been done have gone about as far as were going to with gun control.

Its a horrible, horrible situation, said Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee, who represents the district in question. And were not gonna fix it. Criminals are gonna be criminals.

In 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, firearms were the leading cause of death for children and adolescents in the United States.

When you put all of this together, the picture is clear. The Republican Party will use the law and the state to shield as many children as possible from the knowledge, cultural influences and technologies deemed divisive or controversial or subversive by the voters, activists and apparatchiks that shape and guide its priorities. When Tucker Carlson, Christopher Rufo and Moms for Liberty say jump, their only question is: How high?

But when it comes to actual threats to the lives of American children from poverty, from hunger, from sickness and from guns then, well, the Republican Party wants us to slow down and consider the costs and consequences and even possible futility of taking any action to help.

On Tuesday, I wrote about the fundamental deception behind the slogan parents rights. What sounds like due consideration for parents as the most important adults in the lives of most children is in fact a rallying cry for a subset of the most conservative and reactionary parents, who want a state-sanctioned hecklers veto over the education of all the children in the community. It is a Trojan horse for the slow destruction of public schools.

Something similar is true of the constant calls to protect children. The way they talk about them, these children are not real, living, vulnerable kids. They are a symbol, and the calls to protect them are an excuse, a pretext for wielding the state against the perceived cultural enemies of the American right. These champions of children arent all that interested in young people as citizens with rights and entitlements of their own.

The dark irony in all this is that as the Republican Party turns the idea of the children against gay people as well as trans and other gender-nonconforming Americans, it becomes more likely that actual kids will try to harm themselves, out of fear or despair or a sense of isolation or all of the above.

Not all children, it seems, are worthy of protection.

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Opinion | The Republican Party Says It Wants to Protect Children ... - The New York Times

Congressional Republicans took aim Wednesday at the District of Columbia City Council, the citys public schools, its surging crime and alleged mismanagement in City Hall as they advanced a resolution seeking to overturn a council vote for the second time in a month.

In a quarrelsome House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing titled Overdue Oversight of the Capital City: Part 1, Republicans such as Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene described Washington as an urban hellscape where criminals run rampant and schools do more to produce criminals than to teach math or reading.

Youve got some crappy schools, Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., told the panels witnesses, who included D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson, Councilmember Charles Allen, Washington Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee and D.C. Police Union Chairman Greggory Pemberton. Your schools are not only dropout factories, theyre inmate factories.

An increase in some violent and property crime has put the district under a microscope.

Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., was assaulted in the elevator of her H Street apartment building in February before fighting off her assailant. Last week, a staffer for Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was stabbed in the head on H Street by a man who was released from prison the day before. That staffer, Phillip Todd, is in stable condition and is expected to make a full recovery, but the attack was evidence to Republicans of deteriorating conditions in the nations capital.

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House Republicans paint DC as hellish in move to strike another city ... - Roll Call

WASHINGTON Two and a half years after the Department of Veterans Affairs began testing a new computer system at Spokanes VA hospital, virtually no one in Congress is satisfied with the outcome, but Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate committees responsible for the effort have different ideas about how to fix it.

On Wednesday, Democratic and Republican senators announced separate bills aimed at improving the electronic health record system, for which the VA is paying $10 billion to Oracle after the tech giant acquired Cerner, the company behind the software. The legislation was unveiled two weeks after VA officials told senators problems with the system had contributed to six cases of catastrophic harm, including the deaths of four veterans.

Republicans on the House VA Committee released legislation in January that would freeze or cancel the systems rollout and Democrats on the panel followed March 22 with two bills intended to improve the management and oversight of VA projects.

The flurry of legislation comes at a turning point for the beleaguered effort to replace the VAs existing computer system with Oracle Cerners, which began in 2017 when then-President Donald Trump promised the deal brokered by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, would give veterans faster, better and far better quality care.

Since the system was launched at Spokanes Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center and its affiliated clinics across the Inland Northwest in October 2020, it has had the opposite effect, according to a Spokesman-Review investigation.

Top VA officials in charge of the program have left the department in the wake of revelations that a problem with the system led to roughly 150 cases of harm to veterans. An internal VA report shared with Congress in March identified several other problems.

Deputy Secretary Donald Remy officially stepped down Saturday, after he told lawmakers in November 2021 that the system worked and the department had properly positioned it for success despite having been informed of the incidents of harm. Terry Adirim, the executive in charge of the systems rollout, resigned in February. Months after Remy shared information about the patient harm with her, according to the VA Office of Inspector General, Adirim told lawmakers last April she didnt believe there was any evidence the Oracle Cerner system had harmed any patients or that it will.

After multiple delays prompted by the problems that have emerged from VA facilities using the system in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Ohio, VA officials have said they plan to launch it in June at a hospital in Saginaw, Michigan. As that date approaches and the system continues to affect veterans where it is already in use, heres a look at the legislative proposals to fix it.

The bill unveiled Wednesday by Democratic Sens. Jon Tester of Montana, Patty Murray of Washington and Sherrod Brown of Ohio would mandate that the VA set clear criteria that must be met before the system is launched at additional sites something VA leaders have said they are already working on and require the department and Oracle Cerner to fix the systems problems that were identified in a recent VA report.

This legislation will put into law the kind of aggressive oversight necessary to fix the current system thats my first priority, Murray said in a statement.

The Senate Democrats bill also would require the VA to appoint an official to negotiate a more favorable contract with Oracle Cerner and to develop a plan B for a new electronic health record system in case the company doesnt agree to the new contract. Other provisions in the legislation aim to reform the VAs acquisition process to avoid similar contracting blunders in the future.

Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas, the top Republican on the Senate VA Committee, introduced his bill along with several other GOP senators, including Mike Crapo and Jim Risch of Idaho. Their legislation, which is relatively narrow, would require the VA secretary to certify in writing to the panel that the system has met minimum standards for stability, safety and usability that would be defined by senior VA leaders.

Our nations veterans have gone through too much to see delays in services due to technology errors, Risch said in a statement. The VA in Spokane, which serves North Idaho veterans, has experienced significant slowdowns. While the VA appropriately postponed the deployment of the Oracle Cerner system to other facilities, Congress must intervene to protect the health care needs of our veterans.

In a statement, Crapo said it would be irresponsible to continue the systems rollout before all concerns have been properly and adequately addressed.

The language in the Senate Republicans bill is similar to language included by Murray, Tester and others in the government funding bill Congress passed in December. But it would go a step further by blocking the systems launch rather than simply withholding funds.

It marks something of a change in tone from Moran, who represents many employees of Kansas City-based Cerner and has been quieter about the systems flaws than Democrats on the Senate panel and his GOP counterparts in the House.

On March 22, Reps. Mark Takano of California and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida the top Democrats on the House VA Committee and a subcommittee charged with oversight of the Oracle Cerner project, respectively announced two separate bills that take a broader view of the VAs challenges.

The House Democrats first piece of legislation would create a new position at the VA, under secretary for management, to consolidate and standardize business functions across the department. Their second bill would require the VA to commission independent assessments of four major modernization programs, including the effort to replace the departments current electronic health record system.

While I am encouraged by President Bidens and Secretary McDonoughs efforts to make investments in our veterans a top priority in recent years, it is time we also invest in making sure that veterans and taxpayers are getting what they pay for a modernized and efficiently managed VA, Takano said in a statement.

Republicans on the House VA Committee including Chairman Mike Bost of Ohio and Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana, who chairs a key subcommittee have so far taken the most hard-edged approach to the Oracle Cerner systems problems. In January, they joined fellow GOP Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Spokane, Dan Newhouse of Sunnyside and several others to introduce a bill that would halt the systems rollout until the local and regional leaders of each VA medical center approve its launch.

Separately, Rosendale introduced a bill which only Bost has co-sponsored so far that would cancel the project altogether. While the bill backed by McMorris Rodgers and others appears to be a more moderate option, Oracle executive Ken Glueck told The Spokesman-Review in February it would be an even worse outcome for his company, because it would kill the project slowly.

In contrast to House Democrats and senators from both parties, the House Republicans have expressed openness to reverting to the VAs existing electronic health record system, known as VistA, which is still used at all but five of the departments 171 medical centers. Even if the Oracle Cerner system is eventually implemented across the VA health care system, the department will likely rely on VistA for at least several more years.

Despite their differences, the bills introduced by Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate have significant areas of overlap that could form the basis of bipartisan, bicameral legislation. But even if that happens, it isnt likely to pass Congress and be signed into law by the president before the Oracle Cerner system is scheduled to launch in Michigan this summer.

The VA has shown more caution in recent months about continuing the systems rollout. Meanwhile, Oracle executives have pledged to pour resources into improving the systems flaws since the company acquired Cerner in a deal worth more than $28 billion last June. While lawmakers weigh the pros and cons of putting more taxpayer money into the project, the system continues to impact veterans and VA employees in the Inland Northwest, southern Oregon and central Ohio.

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Democrats, Republicans offer competing bills to fix VA computer ... - The Spokesman Review