Leading the Fight

• As Chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, Chris has led his Democratic colleagues in the fight against several mean-spirited measures, including efforts to further limit reproductive healthcare, make it harder to vote, discriminate against LGBT families, repeal the Texas Dream Act, and pass terrible anti-worker and anti-consumer laws
• Led the 38-day quorum break that brought national attention to the need for federal voting rights protections and led to action by Congress 

Helping Texas Public School Students Succeed

• Brokered the deal to end the stalemate on Texas’ major school finance legislation by crafting a statewide teacher pay raise plan that was ultimately supported by both the House and Senate; two years later, Chris passed an additional measure to ensure that the pay raise would remain in place
• Sponsored a law to help homeless students transition to new schools, as well as apply for college and scholarships
• Co-authored the measure that reduced the number of end-of-course exams required of high school students from fifteen to five
• Passed a measure into law that requires charter school principals to have a bachelor’s degree
• Passed a measure allowing greater communication between high school counselors and students applying to college
• Played a key role in increasing funding for the TEXAS Grants and Texas Educational Opportunity Grant programs

Fighting for Higher Education & UT Arlington

• Passed several transformative higher education policies, including SB 25, which improves the transferability of college credits among institutions of higher education.
  
• Played a key role in fighting for long-overdue Tuition Revenue Bonds for public universities, which resulted in $70 million for UT Arlington for a science and education innovation and research building
• Helped secure over $60 million from the University of Texas System for UT Arlington’s new School of Social Work & Smart Hospital Building
• Helped UTA receive $3.77 million for the UT Arlington Research Institute (UTARI)

Combating Discrimination

• Helped block the discriminatory “Bathroom bill” by combating Republican attempts to discriminate against transgender Texans
• Introduced a measure to prohibit employment discrimination by state contractors based on sexuality and gender identity
• Helped lead the opposition against Senate Bill 4, the “Show Me Your Papers” law

Protecting Texans

• Increased safety on college campuses by passing a measure to ensure that students found responsible for sexual assault, battery, arson, terroristic threats or other violent or destructive behaviors aren’t able to enroll at a new school while concealing their previous expulsion.
• Passed a measure updating Texas’ “duty to report” laws by requiring computer technicians to report instances of child pornography that they discover in the scope and practice of their work
• Passed a measure overhauling the Preparation for Adult Living (PAL) Program to better ensure children aging out of foster care are prepared for life outside of state’s care
• Passed an amendment to ensure that car seat safety is taught in driver’s education courses

Protecting Homeowners & Tenants

• Sponsored the 2021 law that puts several protections in place to safeguard homeowners in HOAs
• Worked closely with tenant rights groups and the City of Arlington to ensure that residents living in multi-family units receive advance notification of a utility cut off so that they may make other living arrangements

Supporting Law Enforcement

• Passed a law that protects police officers from forms of online retaliation and retribution
• Passed a law to help municipal law enforcement agencies that patrol Texas lakes by allowing citations issued on waterways to be heard in municipal court; this was a key measure for Grand Prairie
• Played a key role in passing Senate Bill 22, ensuring first responders who suffer injury or death from front line work during the COVID-19 pandemic are eligible for benefits.

Increasing Ethics & Transparency

• Wrote and passed the law to ban the practice of statewide elected officials “double dipping” a salary and a pension at the same time, ending this unethical practice
• Passed a measure to prevent state agencies from using “emergency leave” as a form of severance pay
• Passed an amendment to require agencies notify the Legislature if a state contract exceeds $1 million of the contracted amount