Issues

PEOPLE BEFORE POLITICS

Angie understands that it’s an elected official’s job to get results, not get bogged down in party politics. Angie has earned a reputation in the Texas Legislature for collaborating with members of both parties to pass legislation to improve public education, broaden access to healthcare, and properly fund our local law enforcement. She will always put the people she represents before partisan politics, that’s why Texas Monthly recognized her as a top 10 best legislator.

STANDING WITH PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Education allowed Angie to change her life, from living in a bamboo and mud hut to being a successful businesswoman. Schools have always been a major priority for her as our State Representative. Angie passed a law to provide more equity across all Texas school districts, increased school funding, and fully funded teacher retirement. Angie’s fighting for our students resulted in the Texas Association for the Education of Young Children awarding her its ‘Elected Official of the Year’ in 2021.

SUPPORTING SMALL BUSINESSES AND THEIR EMPLOYEES

After COVID-19 struck, Angie Chen Button saved our Texas small businesses hundreds of millions of dollars by acting quickly to keep unemployment insurance rates in check. Those were dark days for all of us, but thanks to Angie’s swift action, our Texas small businesses were able to bounce back faster.

FUNDING WOMEN’S HEALTHCARE

Public health experts around the world know that healthy families and healthy communities start with healthy women. Angie increased funding for women’s healthcare by providing lower income women with increased access to cancer screenings and mammograms. She also passed legislation to increase funding for maternal healthcare and added new resources for women, newborns, and families with young children. As a grandmother, Angie is determined to make sure every Texas mother and child has access to the care they deserve.

LOWERING THE COST OF GROCERIES AND MEDICINE

Texas is one of the only states in the country that still taxes business inventory, including the food on the grocery shelf and the medicine on the pharmacy counter. That hidden tax never appears on a receipt, but families pay it at checkout every single trip. As a Certified Public Accountant, Angie Chen Button understands how hidden taxes drive up costs for Texas families. She found one hidden cost hiding in plain sight. She authored House Bill 4083 to exempt perishable food, prescription and over-the-counter medications from the inventory tax, and she continues to fight to get the exemption across the finish line. Groceries and prescriptions are expensive enough without a tax nobody can see.

RECOGNIZED AS ONE OF TEXAS’S BEST LEGISLATORS

Texas Monthly has twice named Angie Chen Button one of the Ten Best Legislators in Texas, an honor awarded by people who watch the Legislature all session long and are famously hard to impress.

That recognition reflects how she works. Angie does the homework, builds relationships across the aisle, and focuses on delivering results rather than scoring points. As Chair of the House Committee on Trade, Workforce and Economic Development and a member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, she has used those positions to cut costs and expand opportunity for the families of District 112.

SAFEGUARDING TEXAS AGAINST DANGEROUS AI

Artificial intelligence is moving faster than the law, and Texas refused to wait for Washington to act.

Angie Chen Button was a joint author of the Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act, one of the first and strongest state AI laws in the country. It bans government social credit scoring, prohibits AI systems designed to manipulate people into harming themselves, and outlaws AI-generated sexual imagery and material that exploits children.

Texas will always welcome innovation. It will never welcome the abuse of it.

PROTECTING CHILDREN ONLINE

Children today grow up in a digital world that can expose them to real dangers, from harmful content to predators who target kids where they spend their time.

Angie Chen Button sponsored and helped pass the App Store Accountability Act, a landmark law requiring app stores to verify users’ ages and obtain a parent’s consent before a minor can download an app, including social media. Parents, not platforms, decide what their children can access.

We verify age to buy alcohol or tobacco. As a grandmother, Angie believes Texas children deserve at least that much protection online.