BG Reads // April 7, 2025

Author

A.J. Bingham
April 07, 2025

Presented By

Serving Central Texas.

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🗳️🏛️📅 Austin Council meetings scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday this week

💸🏥⚠️ Austin Public Health loses $15 million to federal grant cuts (KUT)

🚧🏗️🌳 Work begins on Colony Park in East Austin (Austin Business Journal)

🚫🚉🎯 Texas Republicans take aim at public transit in two major cities (Texas Tribune)

🛂✈️😵‍💫 TSA warns REAL ID enforcement starting May 7 could cause long lines and confusion at airports (KUT)

[BINGHAM GROUP NEWS]

✅ Please join me in welcoming Brittany Heckard to Bingham Group’s Consultant team. Our consultants are contract-based specialists who provide strategic guidance to clients across business, community, and policy issues in Central Texas.

Brittany brings over a decade of experience in public and government affairs, community engagement, and social impact. She previously led legislative and public affairs initiatives at AT&T and supported legal and regulatory efforts at Davis Kaufman PLLC.

Her work has included partnerships with organizations such as Waymo, Ancestry, the Texas Access to Justice Foundation, and the Texas Cultural Trust, where she developed campaigns focused on advancing equity and justice across Texas.

We’re excited to have Brittany on board and look forward to the expertise she brings to our clients and partners.

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ Tomorrow at 9AM: Austin City Council Work Session // Agenda Link 

🏛️ Thursday at 10AM: Austin City Council Meeting // Agenda Link

We’re growing BG Reads and want to better understand who’s reading. Your quick answers help us shape content and build a stronger community.

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ Austin Public Health loses $15 million to federal grant cuts (KUT)

Austin Public Health is losing millions in funding and 27 full-time employees due to cuts at the federal level, the agency's director said.

Five of Austin Public Health's grants have been eliminated so far, resulting in the loss of an estimated $15 million over time. That money paid for APH’s Refugee Services Clinic, COVID vaccination program and diabetes care program, among other services.

APH did not specify the funding agency for all of the lost grants. The Department of Government Efficiency has made cuts at a number of federal and state health organizations. Last week, it announced it would terminate hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to the Texas Department of State Health Services, including some COVID-era funding that was distributed to local health departments.

At an Austin City Council public health committee meeting Wednesday, APH Director Adrienne Sturrup described learning about the cancellation of funds that filter through the Texas Department of State Health Services, one grant at a time, across recent weeks.

"I've called it death by a thousand cuts," she said.

Sturrup expressed concern about more cuts that could be coming… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Work begins on Colony Park in East Austin (Austin Business Journal)

After 13 years, dirt is finally turning on a mixed-use project that will transform East Austin.

Colony Park, first announced in 2012, is a public-private partnership between the city of Austin and Catellus Development Corp., the firm behind the 700-acre Mueller development. Colony Park is projected to have up to 3,000 residential units, about 230,000 square feet of office space, 130,000 square feet of retail space and 42 acres of parks, trails and open space on 208 acres of city-owned land. Affordable housing is part of the plan.

City officials, developers and community activists gathered April 3 to celebrate the groundbreaking.

Overall, Colony Park will be developed over 10 to 15 years, according to a Catellus representative. The first phase of development will consist of infrastructure, open space and construction of row homes, townhomes and single-family homes. The first move-ins are expected to take place in mid-2027.

In total, there will be 1,900 to 3,000 homes built in Colony Park. Of those, 20% of the homes will be classed as affordable workforce housing.

Affordable for-sale homes at Colony Park will be priced for households earning up to 80% of the median family income, while for-rent homes will be priced for households earning up to 60% MFI. For reference, 80% MFI for a three-person household in Austin was $88,050 in June 2024, while 60% MFI at the same time was $68,040, according to the city… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Regional deep-water intake project to finish in 2027 (Community Impact)

A project to pull water from the deepest locations of Lake Travis to supply the Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority—a partnership made up of the cities of Round Rock, Leander and Cedar Park—is roughly halfway complete. Once completed, the BCRUA’s Raw Water Intake project will have the capacity to pump 145 million gallons of raw water from the lake per day.

The project is meant to help the three cities meet future water demands by providing a stable source year-round. Phase 1 of the project included the construction of a floating barge and raw water system on Lake Travis, pulling roughly 32 million gallons of water per day from the lake. However, officials say the barges are susceptible to drought conditions. Once the deep-water project is finished, the barge system will be discontinued.

“This is going to give us protection under severe droughts,” said Michael Thane, Round Rock Public Works director. “So when the lake is dropping, we’ll still be able to pump water.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

✅ Texas Republicans take aim at public transit in two major cities (Texas Tribune)

Texas lawmakers could imperil the future of public transportation in two of the state’s largest urban areas, transit officials and advocates warn.

Republican legislators are entertaining proposals to sap hundreds of millions of dollars from Dallas Area Rapid Transit, the state’s largest public transit system, and thwart the voter-approved expansion of public transportation in Austin known as Project Connect.

Texas Republicans have long been wary of investing in public transit, given the state’s cultural ties to oil and gas and automobiles — and have long pursued ways to undercut the state’s urban areas. In the case of Project Connect, lawmakers see state intervention, at least in part, as a way to rein in high property taxes.

Here’s what the proposed legislation would do… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Judge awards $6.6 million to whistleblowers who reported Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to FBI (Associated Press)

A district court judge on Friday awarded more than $6 million combined to four whistleblowers in their lawsuit against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who were fired shortly after they reported him to the FBI.

“By a preponderance of the evidence,” Travis County Judge Catherine Mauzy says in her judgment, the plaintiffs proved liability, damages and attorney’s fees in their complaint against the attorney general’s office.

“Because the Office of the Attorney General violated the Texas Whistleblower Act by firing and otherwise retaliating against the plaintiff for in good faith reporting violations of law by Ken Paxton and OAG, the court hereby renders judgment for plaintiffs,” Mauzy states.

The court found that the four Paxton aides were fired in retaliation for reporting allegations that he was using his office to accept bribes from an Austin real estate developer who employed a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair. Paxton has denied accepting bribes or misusing his office to help Nate Paul, the real estate developer… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

✅ TSA warns REAL ID enforcement starting May 7 could cause long lines and confusion at airports (KUT)

A month from today — on May 7 — Texans will need a star on their driver's license to use it for boarding domestic flights or entering secure federal facilities.

The star in the upper-right corner means the license complies with the REAL ID Act. Congress passed the law in 2005 after a commission investigating the 9/11 attacks urged stricter national standards for state-issued IDs like driver's licenses.

Twenty years later, adoption of REAL ID is lagging. Millions of Americans are still carrying noncompliant driver's licenses. The federal government knows this and is bracing for public confusion on May 7.

"If the administration does go ahead with imposing this deadline, it's going to lead to chaos in airports in many states, and that may include Texas," Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, said. "It doesn't take many people to slow down security lines."

As of March, 98% of driver's licenses and IDs issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) are REAL ID-compliant. Texas started issuing the IDs in October 2016, and most driver permits expire after eight years… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Spotlight turns to Booker as Dems look to fill leadership void (The Hill)

Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-N.J.) record-breaking Senate speech this week is putting him squarely in the political spotlight as Democrats wonder whether he could be a presidential contender in 2028. Booker’s 25-hour speech aimed at combating President Trump’s moves in the White House gave Democrats a boost, especially as the party did better than expected in two Florida House races and saw a liberal candidate easily win a Wisconsin Supreme Court contest.

At a time when Democrats have been down in the dumps after losing the White House and Senate majority to Republicans — and as the party has been divided over how best to battle Trump — Booker’s speech provided a spark of enthusiasm for rank-and-file party members and his own colleagues.

“He’s a leader. He knows he’s a leader. What he did … puts him in a position to be an even more impactful voice, and that is really, really good for our party,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who stayed up with Booker during the overnight portion of his address. Booker already ran for president in 2020 and is widely seen as having ambitions for higher office.

He joined the Democratic leadership team late last year. Murphy, who is seen as a prospective Democratic candidate for the White House himself, said Booker has a unique ability to make Democrats see hope, even as the New Jersey senator highlights the risks, as he sees it, of the Trump administration. “Cory’s voice is inherently a positive voice, and you have to find a way at this moment to both convey the seriousness of what Trump is doing, which involves feeding anxieties in the public, while also giving them a positive vision,” Murphy said… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Justice Dept. suspends lawyer who acknowledged deportation was a mistake (Washington Post)

The Justice Department suspended a veteran lawyer after he said in court that officials mistakenly deported a man to prison in his home country of El Salvador and conceded that he did not know the legal basis for the expulsion. Erez Reuveni had worked at the Justice Department for nearly 15 years, most recently as the acting deputy director of the Office of Immigration Litigation.

A Justice Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter, said he was put on indefinite leave. In response to questions about Reuveni, Attorney General Pam Bondi said: “At my direction, every Department of Justice attorney is required to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States. Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences.”

Reuveni appeared in federal court in Maryland on Friday after the government’s extraordinary admission that it should not have deported Kilmar Abrego García on March 15 as part of a surprise airlift of purported gang members to the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador.

Reuveni acknowledged the mistake in court Friday and told a judge that he did not know what authority the U.S. used to deport Abrego García. Six years ago, an immigration judge found that Abrego García had testified credibly that he could be harmed or killed by gang members in El Salvador and should not be removed.

“My answer to a lot of these questions is going to be frustrating,” Reuveni told U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in federal court in Maryland. “And I’m frustrated that I don’t have answers to a lot of these questions.”

Reuveni is the latest career staffer to be fired or removed from their position for being viewed as disloyal or ill equipped to carry out President Donald Trump’s agenda. The New York Times first reported on his removal. Typically, career staffers at the Justice Department are tasked with handling cases that they may disagree with, but they are expected to follow legal ethics and the professional standards set out by the American Bar Association.

On her first day as attorney general, Bondi issued an agencywide directive that demanded “zealous advocacy” of Trump’s agenda from the department’s more than 10,000 lawyers. Xinis on Friday ordered the Trump administration to arrange the return of Abrego García, who is married to a U.S. citizen, by no later than 11:59 p.m. Monday… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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