Paxton said the Senate has stayed busy all session. It's the House's turn to catch up.
"I have learned that when I do things hastily, when I put off the work until the last minute, I don't usually have good outcomes," Paxton said. "The Senate works hard not to do that. We spread our workload over time. We got our work done, and the hours show that we actually put in more time since spring break than the House did."
Besides, he said, the Senate has heard every piece of good legislation it thinks came from the House. The comments come amid criticisms from within Paxton's own chamber and the House after he ended the session early for the Senate, even while several House measures and potential veto overrides are still on the table.
The far-right Freedom Caucus, Senate Democrats, several House members of both parties and Gov. Kevin Stitt disagree that the legislative work is done.
And the two House immigration bills Stitt put into action with an executive order circling around the Senate's say in those two measures, seems to prove that. The order requires state agency employees to vet and report to the federal government people in the country who apply for federal food and healthcare benefits without permission.
Immigration advocates and some lawmakers worry that eligible U.S. citizen children whose parents have no legal immigration status will miss out on vital nutrition assistance and healthcare because their parents are scared to apply. That fear comes from the unknowns around how the information collected through verification might be used to target such parents for immigration enforcement, potentially harming their children.
Paxton shares those worries.
"My stances on stopping illegal immigration, I stand with that," Paxton said. "That has not changed. But the criminal actions of a parent should not be taken out on the kids, especially the unborn kids."
There are several bills, resolutions and veto overrides the Senate could be considering right now. Still, Paxton said that's next week's work.
"That's part of what we're doing today, is starting to look at everything the House has accomplished, what they're going to send back to us, what we need to still work on," he said. "And veto overrides are part of that. We have not made any decisions on any of those."
