Texas Sen. John Cornyn has enlisted Chris LaCivita, a top political adviser to President Trump, to help him beat back a primary challenge from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Why it matters: LaCivita's involvement doesn't guarantee an endorsement from Trump in what is expected to be the GOP's most expensive Senate primary.

Tensions are growing between Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate after the results of a new voter survey for the race became public. The new poll shows Cornyn trailing Paxton by 16 percentage points,

What was supposed to be a late-night procedural step toward delivering Trump a vital legislative win instead exposed deep and widening fractures within the House GOP conference.

Under state law, school districts are required to pay certain percentages of total staff compensation toward pensions, health insurance and other benefits. Applying those percentages to the $4.2 billion for school employee raises in the agreement, works out to between $543.9 million to $606.9 million in new costs for school districts.

Federal action would be needed to make the change legal. Lawmakers at both the state and federal levels have debated the question for decades.

A House vote showed broad support for the measure that would let districts set aside time for prayer or religious study.

The House on Wednesday approved the ban, after previously considering proposals to preserve the industry by tightening regulations.

After days of wrangling, the Republican-led House was set to vote early Thursday morning on final passage of the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," the measure to advance President Donald Trump's tax and immigration agenda. After a marathon hearing that ended overnight, the House Rules committee voted 8-4 to tee up action on the House floor.

The House Budget Committee is putting together Trump's big beautiful bill into a reconciliation bill that will cut SNAP benefits and Medicaid to fund tax cuts.

The two safety-net programs are at risk of losing nearly $1 trillion in funding under a sweeping bill House Republicans unveiled earlier this month. It also would provide hefty tax cuts for some of the country’s wealthiest people.