“A Peek Behind the Scenes”
During our Annual Membership Drive, I want to give you a sneak peak behind the curtain of how our Lobby Team is preparing for the 89th Legislative Session. Throughout December, I will be interviewing each member of our Lobby Team so you can learn a bit more about the staff who are doing the work behind the scenes and at the capitol.
This week, I sat down with Texas Impact’s Public Witness Mobilizer, Gracie Bonilla, to learn more about her preparation process for the upcoming session. You can read excerpts below or watch the full interview here:
Kat:
Thanks for joining me Gracie. I’m excited for the people to get to know a little bit more about you. I’m just going to dive on in. So you joined the team recently.
Grace:
Yes. Yeah, so I joined in May of, I guess this year, and I am a recent graduate of UT grad school. I got a master’s of Latin American Studies, and then just a couple of weeks later, I started here at Texas Impact.
Kat:
And you have a little bit of public policy background, right in your family.
Grace:
Yes, yes. My dad has a history in politics. He’s a lawyer, so I’ve known about Texas Impact. I have heard stories about him working at the Capitol, and so I knew I wanted to go into the nonprofit world. Wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do, but when I got this opportunity, I just couldn’t say no.
Kat:
And when you started working, you were a Jill of all trades, right? But now you are a registered lobbyist. How cool is that?
Grace:
Very, very nerve wracking. A little bit, but also very exciting.
Kat:
Definitely. And being a recent grad, being so new, so young, how are you feeling coming into this new session in 2025?
Grace:
I’m really excited. I think this is not something that I necessarily imagined myself doing. I never thought I would be a registered lobbyist, but I care so much about public education. I’m a product of public education, and so I’m really just energized to do it. I love meeting with our public school defenders, empowering them, getting them equipped for the session, getting them prepared. So I am just really excited. I feel like I’m in good hands with Bee, with Beaman Floyd, our outside legislative council, and I get lots of advice from Bobby and Kyle who are both lobbyists as well here. So I feel like I’m in good hands and I’m excited to just start.
Kat:
I know that you’re doing a lot to prepare for this upcoming session. Can you tell us a little bit about, as a lobbyist, what you’re doing to feel confident coming into this new session in 2025?
Grace:
Yeah, so basically about a couple of months ago, myself, Bobby, Kyle, and Becca, all of the registered lobbyists at Texas Impact, we started meeting with Beaman and he just started telling us how to be prepared, how to start tracking bills when bills would start being pre-filed, which was the November, I’m sorry, the Monday after the most recent general election. So bills started getting pre-filed, a thousand bills got pre-filed the first day, so a lot have been filed so far. So just keeping track of those, making sure that we are putting what applies to our specific issue in a repository, making sure that we know what kind of bills are getting filed every day, just getting on top of it so that we don’t get behind, which can happen really easily if you’re not keeping track of it every day.
Kat:
Amazing, amazing. So you’re not only doing the research, so we have the information, you’re laying the groundwork, you’re networking for us. That’s a lot of time at the Capitol. Have you learned any tips or tricks for how to navigate the capitol or what to bring with you to be prepared?
Grace:
Yeah. Honestly, as someone who grew up in Austin, I didn’t really go to the Capitol that often. So right when I started working here was when I started really going to the Capitol. And it’s not a very intuitive layout for sure. It’s not numerical, nothing really makes sense. But there are maps. Texas Impact actually has a map.
Kat:
The Pink Building?
Grace:
Yes, The Pink Building. So you can get your hands on one of those. Those are really good. But I kind of center everything around the Capitol Grill. So whenever I’m somewhere, I’m like, okay, where’s the grill? Because I know where that is. And so that’s kind of like my north star of navigating the Capitol.
Kat:
I love it. I love it. Well, Gracie, thank you so much for chatting with me today, and I know you’re doing incredible work. I know the members you’re working with are doing incredible work. I look forward to everything we’re going to do together in the session.
Grace:
Me too. I can’t wait.
Kat:
Go team.