Serving District 101

At Home

Strengthening Our Communities

  • Secured $2 million in state funding for improvements to Grand Prairie’s Tyre Park, located in the historic Dalworth community
  • Secured $750,000 in state funding for East Library and Recreation Center to provide East Arlington residents with computer and hot spot rentals
  • Cracked down on predatory lenders by working with local organizations and churches to push for the adoption of a payday and title lending ordinances in both Arlington and Grand Prairie, increasing local oversight of this issue and protecting consumers by limiting fees and loan amounts

Improving Public Safety & Transportation

  • Increased safety and accessibility for pedestrians by securing $5.2 million of pedestrian safety enhancements along Pioneer Parkway in East Arlington, including the addition of ADA compliant sidewalks.
  • Played a key role in the expansion of State Highway 360, which is creating a tremendous economic impact on Arlington, Grand Prairie and surrounding communities
  • Worked with TxDOT to ensure secure sound walls and security fencing would be installed along 360 Toll
  • Passed the measure to name the portion of  360 Toll in House District 101 the Rosa Parks Memorial Parkway; honoring the importance of this civil rights icon in our country’s history
  • Working with local leaders and interested parties to find solutions to address the lack of public mass transit options in our community

Protecting our Environment

  • Helped stop a proposed gas injection well at Lake Arlington, which supplies drinking water to a large portion of House District 101
  • Helped stop the proposed concrete batch plant near Grand Prairie’s Dalworth neighborhood

In Austin

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)

Fighting for Our Veterans & Their Families

  • Authored and passed the law creating the Veterans’ Cash lottery scratch-off, which has raised over $165 million to help veterans and their family members with help to pay bills, mental health services, peer support, transportation to VA facilities, and much more
  • Authored and passed the measure that extended the 100% property tax exemption to surviving spouses of service members killed in service to country
  • Worked with his colleagues to help keep the promises made to our veterans and their families by opposing restrictions being placed on the state’s Hazlewood Legacy program
  • Authored measures to help veterans and service members obtain new jobs more quickly, using the skills and knowledge they gained while serving our country in uniform

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