The big news for the past week: the House has filed House Bill 1, the general appropriations bill. You’ll want to read this if you are interested in funding for TPWD, TCEQ, the GLO, and other environment-related programs.

Cyrus Reed, Conservation Director of the Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter, puts it this way: “The fate of environment, water, and parks and wildlife budgets may be sealed this week, and the agencies that support critical programs in these areas are at risk of getting their funding chopped.”

While you can read the full House Bill 1, we’ve put together an excerpt (18 pages, instead of 982) for you, if you want to take a quick look.

In a nutshell, about $4 billion  of the $202 billion biennial revenue (includes Texas’s general fund as well as federal funds) is assigned to natural resources

Legislators at a recent legislative Preview event hosted by the Texas Tribune indicated that the filed bill is a starting point for managing the largest pot of money in recent years. Let the horse trading begin!