 Thank you so much to everyone for being here today, looking forward to diving into this. And I actually wanted to start off with the issue that everyone at the Texas Capitol is talking about today, last week's winter storm and the days long power outages and water issues that millions across the state faced as a result of it. Senator, I want to toss this question to you first. How much does this issue, you know, just given the events that have played out over the past week, how much does it upend the work that the legislature already had on its plate going into session? You know, we're still in a pandemic. We still need to agree on a budget to send to the governor's desk. You know, we're still at some point going to redraw the state's political maps. How does this past week impact all of that work? Yeah, good morning or good afternoon, rather. Thanks for everyone that said joining. And it's good to be with my colleagues in the house. You know, we had enough going on before this freeze happened, and now we have a full assortment of issues that we're looking at, mainly looking at ERCOT and the PUC distinguishing where there is, you know, regulatory failure, because it looks like that's pretty much what has happened here. The fact that you had a lot of recommendations given to ERCOT, including a very strong recommendation to have reserves of of energy to storage and other things that were recommended that were not followed. There are some regulatory issues. I think that the the PUC needs to get a better handle on the governance, of course, is one issue that we've seen this last week. I sent a letter to the PUC asking them to not appoint anyone that wasn't a Texas resident. They have agreed to that. But you may see legislation coming that will make sure that that is set in stone. We know that people are suffering hardships. I'm glad that the president signed the emergency declaration. That means FEMA individual assistance is coming so that can help consumers. What we're waiting to see as it relates to consumers is our electricity bills that we know that some people were getting hit up pretty hard. We're going to hear testimony today from some of those providers, mainly gritty seems to be one that I've heard a lot about where people were charged in a couple of thousand dollars for electricity in just a few days. So there's there's a lot that we have to take in on a regulatory side and then on the consumer side as well. Do any of the house reps want to weigh in just to give the house perspective on on how much everything that's happened over the past week? It has maybe in a sense upended the work that was already on y'all's plates. Well, Cassie, good morning or good afternoon and back in these Texas. I'm proud to represent the great set of Texans and Pope Tyler, Jasper Newton and Harton counties. And I'm in the so-called regulated mid in a continental service area. OK, that's my cell. So my district is not in the ERCOT. We did experience some discontinuation of or disruption of service, but we have very strong co-ops out my way. And and so the way I'm looking at this in the context of Texas is the first word in my title. So we're concerned about our fellow Texans that make up 90 percent of the state that are in the ERCOT region. Obviously, we need to get that right. But look, let me tell you what we need to do. We need to get that. OK. And we need to know exactly what happens. We need to know what winterization means. And I'm thinking in the house, we're having a very vigorous debate today. We're finding out from some of these folks that they did winterize in the context of 2011, but probably not in the context of what we had last week, where we had days and days and days of these very frigid temperatures. We got to when when when you have people in industry, in the energy industry, I said they've reached out to elected officials, regulators saying that we needed to do a little bit more getting to get prepared. We need to look into this as chairman of the House Committee of Homeland Security and Public Safety. We're going to be delving into this. This is not just something we're going to kick off over to the state affairs. We're going to be looking at mitigation. We're going to be looking at planning. We're going to be looking at preparing, response and recovery, because I think that's where the corpus of this issue is that. And we're going to get to the bottom of this and we're going to solve it not just for extreme cold situations, extreme heat, earthquakes, whatever. If we're in Texas and we're the temp largest economy in the world, we've got to get after it and we've got to be ready for any situation that comes our way. Right. Yeah. I mean, obviously there are multiple layers and issues kind of at hand or that were brought to the surface thanks to the events last week. Representative Goodwin, Governor Greg Abbott last night during a statewide address said that the legislative session will not end until lawmakers solve some of these problems. Where do you think or where are you expecting the issue to land by the time that the legislature gavels out? Are we going to have bills passed that don't allow you know, non-Texas residents to sit on some of these boards? Are we going to have a complete overhaul of the PUC and ERCOT? Give us just your take on where you expect this issue overall landing by the by sunny day. Well, I think it's going to be a challenge to get this all fixed by the end of session, just, you know, in the hearings this morning we were only hearing so far from the generators and there's a lot to dive into. And a lot of bills were filed in or sent to the Ledge Council just yesterday with our deadline of having been extended because the original deadline was last Friday because of the storm and all of our offices being shut down due to ice on the roads, you know, we weren't in our offices doing the work that we would have been doing. Of course, we're all used to working from home, but a lot of us, myself included, were dealing with not having power, not having internet, not having water. And so certainly I think it's going to be a challenge for us to get things done this session. Having having this problem solved by Sineadai, I think is is is a lot to bite off. But yeah, I think that I've filed a couple of bills. I imagine most legislators have. But one of my focuses is on communication because a lot of people didn't have a heads up, didn't know what to expect. And like was mentioned earlier with dialysis, that's a life or death situation if you can't get out of your home. So they weren't given an alert to be aware that this was coming. So I we definitely have to improve our communication system as well. Right. Rep Oliver, since you agree with with rep good, good one here, just that, you know, in order to kind of tackle the entire beast of this issue, it's going to be a challenge to get that done in a regular session. Well, I mean, I think we can get a lot of it done, Cassie. I think the main issue right now, and I think I've heard all the members correctly point out that, you know, multifactorial is the word of the day here. You can't point the finger at one thing and say, this was the sole cause. If we just fix this, then this will never happen again. I mean, I I strongly believe this was a never event. Never should have happened. We'll never happen again. And that's the commitment that I would make to the people of Texas that that's what I think we're all up here. That's our goal. And I think we can get a lot of that done this session. But the question is going to be what exactly are those things that could have been done better could have been done differently. I completely agree with Representative Goodwin. I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone in the capital that wouldn't agree that communication specifically from Urquhart to the state of Texas was lacking. And I think I even heard them admit this morning that they they agreed that that was problematic. You know, Senator Alvarado and I come from a part of the state where we're used to having, you know, completely disrupting natural disasters in the form of flooding and hurricanes and things that just blow up your ability to get emergency services to people that need them and dialysis and all of these things. Those are not new problems for us. But we often have days to plan for these things. And this storm was coming. I know there were some weather people out there, you know, forecasters that had said this was going to be super bad. But I don't remember anyone really calling my office and saying, hey, you need to get the word out. This is going to be awful. And so I think, you know, I think communication is a big part of it, right? Oh, let's shift focus here slightly just to before the state froze last week. And I want each and every one of you to have a chance to answer this question. But I want to talk about just more broadly, you know, legislative priorities. Let's start with you, Representative White. What was one of or what is one of your priorities for the session and given everything that's happened over the past week? Have your list of priorities just, you know, from an office perspective, had they shifted or changed that much? Well, maybe so. But let me let me pick up from before we the focus shift. We've got to start doing stuff now. We can't wait for bills to pass. Hey, look, I used to do this. I used to be an infantry office. You've got to fix the communications tonight. We may have an emergency tomorrow. It may be some some I think we've had this happen within the last few days. It could be some train running into a truck and they're carrying some flammable material. And we got to fix communications tonight. If Ercut needs to fix their phones to call representative Goodwin or represent our we got to do that today. So I'm really focused on I know we got to pass bills. I'm just like my colleagues. I like to see my names on papers of authors and bills. I get that. But we got to do something tonight before tonight. So coming into my session, it was always about pulling this state out of the cold ditch. I mean, I had to do this back home, but I'm walking down the street. I run into a young man who stops me on the street and says, Sir, would you give me something to eat? I said, well, OK, what do you want to do? Just let's walk to the 7-Eleven. So we walk to the 7-Eleven. He buys something while he's walking. Cassie, I ask him, what did you do before? He says, I was a dishwasher. Look, I love dishwashers. We know we need dishwashers. I don't wash dishes, but we need dishwashers. OK, in our restaurant, this this COVID scenario has put many people back to work. Number one, whether it's getting out of the freeze ditch of the COVID ditch, we've got to get the state open, not 75%, not 50%, not only here, not over there. That's in all 254 counties. We've got to get people back to work. We've got to get the tax revenues flowing back into the state and the local governments. And we do that by focusing on improving the vaccination. The vaccination is a game changer right now. I love testing. I test when I come in every morning. OK, Cassie, but we've got to do the vaccination. So we need government to focus on a few things like vaccination administration. Get the state open 100 percent. They get us out of the COVID ditch and hopefully they get us out of the freeze ditch as well. OK, so that's to be clear. Your your priority for this session is is recovery. We've got to get people back to work, Cassie. We're about to lose the state. We're about to lose society. We're about to lose the country because we're out of constitutional order for a whole year. That's horrible. That's bad. OK, so we got to get back to normal. And we do that by focusing on vaccine administration, making sure our teachers can get back in and get the kids back to school, get our parents back to their jobs, get the people off the street asking for food. Right. Well, you mentioned schools there. And I maybe this will be a good segue into tossing the question your way. Representative Goodwin, you know, you and I were talking before this this conversation and you mentioned that, you know, something high on your priority list is how schools have been impacted, you know, not only just over the past year with the pandemic, but last week and how that's a focus of yours. Can you talk to us about how, you know, what you're focused on just on that particular issue this session? Yeah, absolutely. Well, before before the freeze, it was making sure our schools continue to get the funding that they need from House Bill 3 and just to keep that improvement going, making sure our teachers are paid well so that we continue to have that pipeline of teachers coming into the schools. There's been this has been a really tough year for teachers. A lot of stress in their lives having to deal with teaching remotely and in the classroom and doing both at the same time. It's I've just heard so many stories of how much work teachers are going through and how hard this has been on them. So definitely even after the freeze, making sure schools are supported, making sure they have the the resources that they need to fix the schools that have been damaged. I did reach out to all of my superintendents this morning to find out how extensive the damage is in some of the schools. And it's varied quite a bit. So, for example, the Lake Travis schools tend to be newer and tended to not have much damage from the freeze. But some of the other schools have had pipes burst and and, you know, so now on top of everything else, they're having to deal with that. So definitely supporting our schools is a high priority for me. Right. Thank you, Senator. Tell us about one of your priorities this session and whether again, last week has has shifted your focus just in terms of what you're trying to get past this session. It has shifted a bit, but even during the pandemic, I was looking to address issues concerning disparities that have been highlighted since the we've been under this pandemic, this health disparities. And that translates for me into the expansion of Medicaid. I think that's something that we need to have. I would love to see it done in a bipartisan way, because we know that Texas, even before the pandemic, led the nation in the largest population of uninsured and then layer on top of that, the people that lost their private health insurance because of the work conditions they were laid off or their businesses closed. And then also bridging the digital divide. That's something that needs to be addressed. Couple, you know, these issues are things that many of us have pointed out, that there are disparities in our state. And I'm glad that the digital divide is getting some attention. We also have to make sure that we have the resources in place that should we go through this again, or we have to revert back to all virtual that kids can get the devices that they need. Our office was involved in securing private resources to get laptops and tablets to schools. And that infrastructure should already be set up in case we have to do this. And as Representative Oliver just mentioned in Houston, we're used to having schools closed down and we didn't do the virtual learning back then, but this is, I guess, one thing that we've learned to do. And if we ever have to shut down our school districts again, because of whether flooding or hurricanes, we have the we have that mechanism in place, but we have to make sure that the students have the devices. Also, looking ahead, our state has to look for new revenue streams. And I think, you know, one of the things that that's been tossed around and I'll be addressing this more directly in the very near future. But that's allowing Texans to vote on gaming to allow us to create a commission and to have destinations that are really meaningful in terms of generating jobs and stimulating the economy. And we can talk more about that later, but we do have some budget issues that that maybe aren't as grand as we thought several months ago, but nevertheless, coupled with what has just happened in the last week, we know that's also going to put some constraint on our financial sources. Right. Thank you. You mentioned a couple of things like expanding Medicaid and the gaming conversation that we'll get back to you here in a minute. But I wanted to give Rep Oliverson a chance to just run us through, you know, his top, you know, one or two priorities for the session. And again, whether last week shifted any of that. Yeah, I think, you know, honestly, Cassie, I think our you know, we lost a week, so we're on a compressed timeline. I think we can still get the important things done. We just have to prioritize. I've heard folks say and I think this is probably true that if, you know, if you've got some some issue and it's, you know, one of these things where, you know, 49 percent opposed and 51 percent for, you know, it may be that those are this is not the session to to have hearings on things that are, you know, bills that are going to chew up tons of clock. Right. We're we're kind of down by a few touchdowns right now. And the last thing we need to do is run the ball for three yards again, three yards a carry, we're not going to get there. So I've heard that. I can tell you that my committee intends to still have a full schedule and full hearings and work through all the work products that, you know, all the ideas that the members bring trying to address different problems that have been brought to their attention by their constituents and folks in the state. And we're going to work through the process. We have in the insurance committee, you know, we we always have issues with health care. I'm glad Senator Alvarado brought that topic up. I personally believe that there are many, many, many ways for us to make health care more affordable for all Texans, not just those who are uninsured, but really everybody. I think we pay too much and we get too little. And I think the biggest problem is that patients can never function properly like consumers. They don't know what the prices are. We have people who, you know, can't find out what something costs until 30 days after they've purchased it. I mean, imagine if we bought cars that way. If I told you to drive a car off the lot, but I wouldn't tell you how much you owed me until 30 days after you started driving and you would never agree to that. But unfortunately, that's how our health care system works. And we got to do better than that. We're going to be talking about TWAIA, you know, for those that live along the coast like myself and Senator Alvarado and Representative White, you got some some coast stuff, Chairman. You know, we the TWAIA is important to the coast and and it needs some tuning up a little bit. There have been some issues and we're going to hear that. And we're going to discuss that thoroughly and we're going to try to help that agency get to where it's moving with its best foot forward being actuarially sound and functioning like a true insurance product in meeting the needs of the consumers and the policy holders. So we got all these things to work on. And you know, Representative Goodwin mentioned, I actually, Senator Alvarado mentioned the broadband thing. You know, the governor's prioritized that as a that's a must pass. We need that on so many levels. That's not just about education, but that's about equity and health care as well. We have a lot of communities, rural communities, inner city communities where maybe we don't have enough providers for one service or another. But if we have broadband, we can we can work in different ways on creating access to health care. But we need that broadband on so many levels. So I think that's a perfect project for the state. You know, we always talk about big government versus little government and what's the proper role of government. But, you know, much like electrification back in the last century required, you know, public private involvement and getting together and getting it done. I think that the broadband issue is is right for the state to be involved and to take a lead and to get it done. And I think it's critical on a lot of levels. Right. You're right. It seems at least, you know, in these initial conversations that expanding rural broadband access has support from both Republicans and Democrats. When we're talking about things like Medicaid expansion, though, you know, Republicans, of course, have have long resisted generally, generally resist expanding the state federal health insurance program here in Texas. And that doesn't appear. It'll change anytime soon. I want to ask a House member this question and then Senator Alvarado, I'll give you a chance to respond. But, you know, New Speaker Dave Phelan has said that he thinks lawmakers this session can have conversations about improving Medicaid. I think he's said that there's room to talk about a Texas solution, one that's revenue neutral. Rep, you know, whoever wants to take this rep, Goodwin, White or Oliverson, what does that really mean? And where do you see the conversation going on Medicaid expansion this session? Well, I don't know if I'm a speaker whisperer, but I'll just say this every session I've served the folks back home in the Texas House. I've spent more and more. I voted for budgets that have done more and more money for Medicaid. OK. So I think there's some improvements we can do to make sure that you know, we're doing equality, obviously. Obviously, we're going to spend more because of the population and whatnot. For example, let me give an example where I think the speaker is coming from. So think about how crazy this is. You can be a young you can be a child. You can be a juvenile in Texas. OK, you can get sent into the juvenile system to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. Medicaid, for the most part, will not cover you, even though you were probably covered by Medicaid before you were incarcerated in one of our youth lockups. However, under statute, if you are a youthful justice involved, a boy or girl, young man or young woman under 18, around 16, 17, and you're in TDCJ. We have the capability of covering Medicaid for you at TDCJ. OK, so that doesn't make much sense to me why we would allow Medicaid to cover a justice involved juvenile in TDCJ, but not in TJJD. So those are some things we can work to make sure we're we're having a continuity of care for these youth that are going maybe from the failed CPS system, which we're still spending money fighting in courts about. Oh, that's about and then they get into the juvenile system and they still have the same mental situations, Cassie. And now they, you know, they're in the juvenile system. So we need to keep that continuity care. So I think there are things that we can do there while also expanding programs that are already on the table like the Nurse Family Partnership Program. OK, so those are things that we can do right now. We can do those tonight. And that's what I'm saying. We need to do things tonight. OK, those are things that we can do tonight that are already covered by Medicaid and are already being funded by the state of Texas. Well, I would add there's a couple of things that I feel are somewhat easier than a full blown Medicaid expansion. And that would be with the the moms. You know, we I think we all recognize that mothers who've given birth need to have health care for a year on going beyond giving birth or for their own selves and for the babies. So I know last session we tried to extend Medicaid from 60 days to a full year for moms. Hopefully this this session we can get that passed. And then also the issue of kids falling off of Medicaid because of the paperwork that's required every six months. I know there's an ongoing attempt to change that to a year as opposed to just a month. So I think those are some smaller steps that we should be able to get passed. But obviously we'd like to see Medicaid expansion so that all of those who are uninsured can have access to a primary health care doctor. What about you, Senator? You know, I obviously referenced the speaker and toss that, you know, specifically to House members, but over in the Senate, you know, you all are more just by the numbers here, a little bit more ideologically conservative. We're going to get into the lieutenant governor's 31 priorities here in a minute. But just on Medicaid expansion in general, where do you see that conversation going in the Senate this session? Well, you know, it's an uphill battle, it's an uphill climb. But coming off of the heels of a pandemic, I can't think of a better time to address the issue for Medicaid expansion just from February through May alone. Six hundred and fifty nine thousand Texans lost of health care coverage. And as I said earlier, we were already in the number one spot for uninsured. So you put this on top. And again, what the numbers I'm giving is just a snapshot. But expanding Medicaid, I think is part of the essential a step to recovery in Texas, both from the public health side and an economic standpoint. I don't care if it's a Texas fix or what you can call it, Texas, two steps. It doesn't matter. But something has to be done to allow us to accept that federal money because since the decision was made, not to. The state has left over 70 billion dollars on the table. So I think coming off of this pandemic, it's it's an issue that ought to be, you know, I'm not in control here, but I would have put it as an emergency item for the legislature to take up. Right. Let's just stick with you on this question, Senator, and then we'll turn it back to the House members. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick earlier this week unveiled his 31 legislative priorities. We don't have too too many details yet on all of those bills since many of them have not yet been filed. But we already know that, you know, we're included in the Lieutenant Governor's List is, you know, the Star Spangled Banner Act or a ban on taxpayer funded lobbying. Are you expecting all of those issues to get passed out of the Senate, Senator, this session? It's hard to say. I mean, there haven't been any bills even referred yet. All of us in this talk, comparing a sports analogy to I think he said, we're in the I forget what quarter he said, but I kind of look at it baseball, you know, I'm getting antsy. I feel like we're getting near that seventh inning stretch. And we haven't even really done anything. We haven't even been on the field. But my anxiety is as if I'm in the seventh inning stretch. And, you know, I I hope that we can focus on the issues that are at hand right now, which is our electricity, our power issue and covid and and the budget. Right. Representative Oliverson, you know, we haven't seen as much definition from Speaker Dade feel and yet on what his top priorities for the session will be. Of course, you know, we can talk about role broadband access in the budget and redistricting. You know, those are understood to already be priorities. What are you expecting to take center stage in the house, aside from what we've already been talking about today? And how will the lieutenant governor's priorities, assuming that they make it over to the house, how do you anticipate those shaking out in the house? Well, I don't want to speak for the speaker because I've, you know, that that's conversation you got to have with him. But I would say that there have been a number of priorities that have been put forth both in the House and the Senate. And I think are significant. And, you know, I suspect that, you know, just much like his predecessor, Dennis Bonin, that, you know, the speaker's job is to allow the House members to determine the priorities and to move those priorities, which makes us a little bit different, maybe, than the Senate. But, you know, there have been a number of sort of priority lists that have been put out and things. And I think if you look at the bills that the members have filed, I think you see a lot of pretty significant issues need to be addressed. You know, I have not read the list of priorities. But, you know, I have to think that there's probably some some good, you know, a limited government kind of 10th Amendment and Second Amendment conservative type of things. And I think, you know, it's a conservative House. And I think those will get a warm reception in the House. And I think we'll move those priorities. And, you know, going back to, I guess, your earlier question about, you know, priorities of what, you know, where I think what the House is going to get done. And I think that's really up to the members. I mean, I'm sitting here thinking as I was listening to to some of the dialogue, you know, a necessity mother of invention, right? And so I think the degree to which we can be expedient, we can work hard and we can get all these things done is entirely dependent on how much we feel it's necessary to do so. And yes, we are a bit behind the eight ball right now. But I believe very strongly in my colleagues in both chambers that if we we put our, you know, put our minds to it, we will pass all these priorities. We can still have a very, very productive session. And look, there have been some big problems that have been thrown in our laps since the last time we gabbled in. And I think the people of Texas expect and rightly so that we're going to take these issues seriously and we're going to do something. And we're not just going to be like the federal government and get into gridlock and partisanship and throw up our hands and say, well, you know, it can't be done and all this kind of stuff. I mean, that's not our history in this state. We work well together across both chambers, you know, from east to west, but also Democrats and Republicans working together. We're going to get the important stuff done because that's what we do. And if that means coming in and working a few extra days coming in, maybe on a Friday, a Monday, a Saturday, a Sunday, a little sooner than we normally would, I'm pretty sure all 181 of us or 82 of us are going to agree to do that because we want to deliver at the end of the session. We want to go home and say that neither the pandemic nor the ice storm prevented the House and the Senate from doing their job and delivering for the people. Right. Representative White or Goodwin, do either one of you want to weigh in on House priorities or how the Lieutenant Governor's priorities may play out in the House? Well, you know, these are kind of interests, 31 priorities, 31 senators. You know, you got 31 chapters, 31 books and a book of proverbs. You know, I don't know. I don't know how that works neatly in the House with 150 members. You know, a lot of songs there. But look, I think the members, when you look at the bills we're filing, the bills are right on target. What we're talking about about the day, my colleagues, Representative Goodwin and Representative Dr. Oliverson, look, it's got to be on opening the economy. And then with this big freeze, 21 is going to be about how you keep the economy open so, you know, so we don't have this situation happen again. I think that's that's the bucket we're in. At the same time, Texans are concerned about their constitutional rights cast, they're concerned about their ability to lawfully, if they're a law-abiding person, lawfully exercise their Second Amendment rights. But at the same time, they're also concerned about their civil rights as it relates to their engagement with our great law enforcement people. I think those will be some issues that will be on the table as we go into the session and we discussed the session. So you got to have all of this. If you're going to have a functioning society, you got to have the constitution working, you have to have the civil rights protected and you have to have the economy open because I love broadband. I need broadband in these Texas. But if we don't have our economy open, we're not broadly banding anything. OK, so we got to get the economy open. We got to protect the people's civil rights and we got to uphold the people's constitutional rights. So I would love to add just a little bit as, you know, last week's winter storm is part of our environmental issue. And while the environment may not be top of mind for folks, I think it should be. I do know that the speaker has one environmental priority around storage tanks because of the explosion at a refinery or a chemical plant in his district. So there are a couple of bills out there to improve regulation around storage tanks above ground storage tanks and then also aggregate plants. So there's a lot that we need to do with environmental issues. And I hope that they'll reach the top of the speaker's priority list. Senator, I'm going to ask your redistricting question, but very quickly to our audience members, we are probably five, ten minutes away from asking questions that you guys have submitted. So please feel free to submit those in the chat box and we will try to get to as many as we can here soon. Senator, the legislature will almost certainly be back for a special session sometime in the fall, thanks to census data not arriving until sometime in September. So can you just walk us through the timeline that you are expecting as a member of the Registry Committee and how such a massive delay could have implications on elections? Oh, yeah, we do have redistricting this session, too. On top of everything else in the freeze. Yeah, I mean, boy, you talk about creating the perfect storm for an unprecedented legislative session. Here it is. I know on the House side, they did a lot of field hearings in person. We had just started ours. I think we were just a couple of weeks into having virtual regional hearings members here in the chamber, but going by different regions around the state. And then we stopped last week. So we're and then we haven't had any and aren't having any this week. So that's putting those two weeks behind. We will reconvene that, I think, the second week of March. And then once the numbers come out, there's going to be more hearings that we'll do because now we have something to actually base testimony on. So that's that's the plan. As far as I know right now is just we thought I'm sure a lot of the discussions that will go on between our delegation members and Congress because we are drawing their lines and now we're going to be their best friends for the next couple of months. And then we've got more people in our state. So we're going to get three extra congressional seats. That's going to be a little challenge to draw those seats. And I'm just hopeful that we can have a process that is transparent so far. We've seen that. But we know that Texas always ends up in courts when it comes to redistricting or anything related to voting rights. So having a very open process and allowing public testimony even after we get the numbers is very important to the process. Stu, one last question here, and then we will. I think that there's been an audience question submitted that might be a nice segue for this last question. Representative Olverson, what does the legislatures? You know, we are we are all talking about responding to the pandemic. And again, there are so many issues that are tangential to talking about that. My question is, are we going to see lawmakers pass one big bill responding to the pandemic? Or are we going to see a lot of smaller bills? What do you think just the overall approach is going to be in the pandemic response this this year? That's a that's a great question, Cassie. And quite frankly, I don't know the answer to that question 100 percent. I think that while it would be nice if we had one sort of big omnibus bill, I'm not sure that the pandemic itself lends lends itself very well to just sort of a one, you know, bill kind of catch all sort of approach for the same reason that, you know, after Hurricane Harvey, we came back up here in 2019 and we passed a just a slew of bills to try to improve the state's response to major disasters. And so I expect that there will probably be several different smaller things sort of looking at one issue versus the other. I personally filed a legislation this week that really addresses what I think was a huge problem, which is the inability of the DSHS to have a standardized method of reporting data and getting that data to us in a usable format that's not subject to sort of, you know, cooptation by people who may be looking to grind some political acts one way or another and really sort of inform the public about what's going on as far as the status quo. I sort of felt like we were all over the place. And the data kept having to be revised and the way we reported it was changed. And so one thing I'd like to see as a scientist is I'd like to see clear cut, reliable, dependable information coming out with regards to a pandemic that, you know, we can all draw the same logical conclusions about. And I don't feel like we had that. Does anyone else want to weigh in before we turn to audience questions? I will just say, yeah, I think one of the big priorities should be improving the vaccine registry. Donna Howard has filed a bill. I think she's been working on the same thing for several sessions, but just to help with again, the data and improving data. Right. That seems to be a big issue on a lot of people's minds here. So this is being asked by one of our attendees today. And whoever wants to take it first, please feel free. Has it been more difficult to meet and do your regular work this session with COVID restrictions at the Capitol? I think the answer is probably yes, but I think we would just all want to hear some insight into what the the legislating process has has looked like meeting with constituents, if you're doing that, your interactions with colleagues on the House and Senate floors. Whoever wants to go first, please. Yeah, one of the challenges for us has been, you know, we we don't have all of our staff in at one time. So if you want to have a big staff meeting, I mean, I do believe that when you're all there, it's easy to walk over to somebody compared to those dialogues, brainstorm like that. But having that rotating shift of people that's somewhat of a disruption. And then we get tested here in the Senate. You get tested and you get a wristband to come to the floor so you know who's been tested. So it does take a little extra time and planning and not having that accessibility to stakeholders to sit face to face. That's also been a challenge. There's some times I think it's better to have those face to face meetings. So just having to work around a lot of things and plan ahead and adjust and be flexible aside from everything else going on. So I'd say, yeah, it's been a little disruptive. I guess I'd like to jump in on that one, too, because I think it's important. We have, you know, as you may know, Cassie, we kind of have things are being done a little bit differently on the House and Senate. I can tell you from my office's perspective, you know, as a health care provider, I mean, I've been an essential employee in the COVID fight going all the way back to March. I was not one of those that was allowed to kind of camp out in my house and, you know, sort of wait for the storm to blow over. So I've gotten pretty used to wearing masks and taking precautions and, you know, socially distancing and sanitizing and all that kind of stuff. And I just sort of brought that that knowhow up here to my office. And so, you know, we've taken precautions. We have an office policy, you know, we test the staff test daily. I've actually completed the vaccination course at this point. And so, you know, the one thing I will say that is different and you can see this as a plus or a minus. And quite frankly, I suspect my colleagues might think sort of tongue in cheek about this as well as I do. You know, Zoom is definitely a cool thing. The fact that you don't necessarily have to be sitting in your capital office to do your business for the people and that you can you can basically be seeing folks like last week, you know, until we lost power on Monday evening, I was able to have a full day of meetings iced in in my office in my house where I live in my district. And I we would have never done that two years ago. It would have just been a lost day. So, you know, technology is great. I wish I was a, you know, a founding member of Zoom or whatever, because obviously that's a revolutionary technology, but it it has been nice to be able to have alternate methods to do our work. And, you know, what the office is just not as crowd as it used to be. And I think my staff would tell you there are pluses and minuses to that. But but we're getting a work done. Well, I mean, without Zoom, we couldn't see Senator Alvarado in in front of the Texas Capitol, I think that at least she's not a cat, right? Representative White, this may be a good question for you to answer first. And then whoever else wants to jump in afterward can. This question is from Brian Beck regarding Urcott, why are significant portions of Texas not on the Texas electrical grid? So he's referencing the Panhandle West Texas portions of East Texas. And why can't individual counties opt out of Urcott, considering that not all counties are part of Urcott to begin with? OK, well, to answer it is probably the first half is probably those folks will kind of prophetic about last week, right? Well, the way that it's sort of historical, Cassie and Brian, it predates. How electric companies kind of formed in the areas that they serve. Then as we transitioned into a war economy during WW2 and and then as we're emerging from WW2, we get into all these national and state regulations and we sort of have the grids that we have in Texas and throughout the country. So that's sort of the elevator speech. I do think there are processes in place that's been placed for counties and cities to get in and get out of this grid of that grid. A great former member. Now he's leading a great city in Texas. I'm talking about the mayor of Sylvester Turner. I don't know. I heard just saw something on Twitter. You can't believe everything you see on Twitter, right? But that maybe Houston was going to pull out of her car. OK, so so apparently there are processes to do those types of things. But but look. For James White, I'm just very proud of my co-ops, how they responded, how they kept so many people, their lights on, how our law enforcement officials, our first responders, the National Guard people, the troops there. And how these technicians got out in East Texas and kept our people, kept their lights on and kept the heat going. I'm just so proud and grateful for them. And we'll get this haircut. We love the people in Houston. I'm from Houston. I have family in Houston. So we love people in Houston. We don't want them to be in the cold in the dark. And we're going to get this thing right. And we're going to get people on the right grid. And the point is, whatever grids you on, your lights need to come on at the most important time. Thank you so much, everyone, for being here today, for tuning in. I love this conversation. I hope you did, too. And, Eric, we will toss it back to you whenever you're ready. Thanks. Thank you, Casey. Thank you all for sharing your time and insights with us this afternoon. For those attending, if you're not yet a member of the Future Forum, I strongly encourage you to sign up on our website, lbjfutureforum.org. Members enjoy first access to events and happy hours, networking opportunities and benefits at the LBJ Presidential Library. And on Tuesday, March 2nd, we're hosting a live Q&A with Tanya Williams, who served as Director of Legislative Affairs for then Vice President Biden. And at the end of March, we're convening a conversation on the futures of cities post-COVID. More details are available on our website. Thank you all again for joining us today, and we hope to see you again soon.