02/07/2025

Texas House Speaker Burrows discusses water, school choice and small business priorities

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal | Mateo Rosiles | Feb. 4, 2025

Texas House Speaker Burrows discusses water, school choice and small business priorities

Just before Gov. Greg Abbott laid out his vision agenda for the state in a Sunday evening address, newly elected House Speaker Dustin Burrows discussed his priorities for the ongoing Legislative session and hopes for how he can use his influence to support not only his West Texas district, but the entire state.

With school choice, teacher pay and anti-DEI initiatives among issues set to be on the agenda, Burrows, a Lubbock Republican, said he hopes to use his new leadership role, in part, to help advocate for a part of the state that is often forgotten.

Burrows, who was elected to the speakership position in January but has served as the representative of House District 84 in West Texas since 2014, served as chair of the House Calendars Committee last session.

"It just has given me a great sense of pride that the (Lubbock) community has trusted me to be their voice down here," Burrows said. "I am very honored and humbled that my colleagues in State House decided that they wanted me to reside as speaker for this session."

While divisive issues are on the agenda, Burrows said he hopes to use his leadership position to help foster unity not only in his own party but throughout the state.

"More than a supermajority of the members of the Texas House are ready to get to work," Burrows said. "They're ready for me to help guide our chamber as we move forward. But almost everybody, regardless of party, is ready to get to work, to represent their district, to help shape the big policy agenda, and when members are working, Texas is better."

That also means working with his counterpart in the Senate — Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — and Gov. Greg Abbott, which means reinstating the breakfast between them known as "the Big Three Breakfast" that was done away with a few years ago.

On Sunday, Abbott hosted his biannual State of the State address, laying out his priorities for lawmakers, which Burrows quickly confirmed aligns with the House's agenda.

"(Abbott's) address reinforced the priorities that will demand lawmakers’ attention this session, including strengthening education through school choice and school finance investments, securing our water future, improving government efficiency, cutting property taxes, and ensuring our students are prepared to meet the demands of a growing workforce, among others," Burrows said in a statement Sunday evening.

While school choice has been a highly discussed topic, Burrows said told the A-J the House will also focus on infrastructure, specifically pertaining to water, an issue that has been spearheaded by another West Texas lawmaker — State Sen. Charles Perry, a Lubbock Republican.

But there's another issue Burrows said he is looking forward to addressing - supporting small business.

"One of the things the house will be leading on is small business," Burrows said. "It is the economic backbone of this state, and we need to make sure small business, in particular, has the ability to expand, grow, hire new employees, or the people who decide they no longer want to work for somebody else but want to take that risk of going and working for themselves, have that opportunity to start their own small business."

Burrows said some of the legislation to help address this issue includes a property tax reform bill and a proposed program to help create workforce-ready employees after graduating from high school. One of the other pieces is scaling back regulations, which Burrows has already made headway on with the noted "Death Star Bill" he championed during the 2023 legislative session.

In January, Burrows announced the formation of the first prominent committee for DOGE — Delivery of Government Efficiency - in Texas.

"It is going to look for waste, fraud and abuse," Burrows said. "It's also going to look at ways that we can find efficiencies through technology to make sure that we can cut down on spending."

With a lot of information coming out of Austin that is directly impacting every Texan, Burrows offered one piece of advice for Texans to stay involved in state politics.

"Read your local media," Burrows said. "Twitter is not reality, but your local media does a great job of talking about the big issues of the day."