The Senate Committee on State Affairs unanimously voted to authorize subpoenas on large tech firms, such as Facebook and Google, on the basis of election interference. 

The subpoena would require the affected companies to appear before the Senate Committee for a hearing, show any records, documents, or evidence pertaining to the topic of the subpoena, or testify regarding the produced materials at the hearing. 

Testimony at the hearing included a statistic on Google, which was showing Democrat party users 2.5 times more ads regarding voter registration than Republican users among a 14,500 database of users. 

State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston), who moved the action item, said “We need to understand what is happening when we have a solid witness testimony based upon fact in this voter area and other areas as well. Very gratified to see this was a unanimous support for my motion.”

Senate Affairs Chairman Bryan Hughes (R-Tyler) said “there is strong evidence that big tech imposes their own biases to manipulate and stifle dissenting voices, undermining election integrity. Texas will not stand for that.”

Senate State Affairs committee is chaired by Senator Bryan Hughes. Senator Angela Paxton is the vice chair. And Senators Bettencourt, Birdwell, LaMantia, Menendez, Middleton, Parker, Perry, Schwertner, and Zaffirini are members.