Texas lawmakers on the new Senate and House Select Committees on Civil Discourse and Freedom of Speech in Higher Education met in Austin Thursday to discuss the state’s free speech laws. It was their first meeting since Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and House Speaker Burrows named them in September, days after Charlie Kirk’s murder on a Utah campus.

“The fact that we could not agree in a society that any political assassination needs to be condemned is a point that I wish we would not have to recognize as the obvious, but we're doing that today,” Senate chair Paul Bettencourt said as he opened the hearing.

Lawmakers this year passed a handful of bills centered around discussions and conduct on college campuses. Senate Bill 37 adds controls on what professors can teach and say in class and dim

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