{"id":444320,"date":"2026-09-22T19:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T19:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/444320\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T19:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T19:12:07","slug":"texas-public-libraries-generate-billions-in-economic-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/444320\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas public libraries generate billions in economic impact"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>State Rep. Greg Bonnen of Friendswood has been tapped to lead a new team that will promote Texas as the future home of the U.S. Space Academy.<\/p>\n<p>Bonnen, a neurosurgeon, chairs Houston Physicians\u2019 Hospital and the powerful Texas House Appropriations Committee. His House district is close to NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center.<\/p>\n<p>Gov. Greg Abbott <a href=\"https:\/\/gov.texas.gov\/news\/post\/governor-abbott-creates-leadership-team-to-bring-united-states-space-academy-to-texas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">appointed the seven-member team<\/a>. Last month, President Trump signed an executive order establishing the Presidential Commission on the U.S. Space Academy. Commission members, who held their first meeting this month, will recommend a permanent location for the academy.<\/p>\n<p>Texas officials are pushing a site near Johnson Space Center to host the academy. Alabama, Colorado and Florida are among Texas\u2019 competitors.<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commerce.senate.gov\/press\/rep\/release\/cruz-babin-u-s-space-academy-belongs-in-texas\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">joint statement<\/a>, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, both of Texas, issued a statement backing the state\u2019s bid for the academy. Cruz lives in Houston. Babin lives in Woodville, about 55 miles south of Beaumont.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmerica\u2019s space program is built across the country, but Texas is where the pieces come together,\u201d the lawmakers said. \u201cWe are ready to lead the next generation of space pioneers and look forward to showing why Texas is the right home for the U.S. Space Academy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The academy\u2019s curriculum will include technical education, leadership development, and public service components. Graduates will be set up for careers in the U.S. military, civil service, and aerospace sectors.<\/p>\n<p>The Abbott-appointed team will work with the Texas Space Commission to prepare the state\u2019s proposal for the academy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTexas is the home of America\u2019s human spaceflight program,\u201d Abbott said in a release. \u201cNo state can match what Texas brings to this mission.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center, world-class universities, a premier commercial space industry, major military installations, and an unmatched aerospace workforce give Texas every asset the United States Space Academy requires,\u201d the governor added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>This story was originally published on our sister site, <a href=\"https:\/\/houston.innovationmap.com\/abbott-us-space-academy-texas-2677868492.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">InnovationMap<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State Rep. Greg Bonnen of Friendswood has been tapped to lead a new team that will promote Texas&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[951,4011,82,84,83,27518],"class_list":["post-444320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-city-life","tag-libraries","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-san-antonio-public-library"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}