Gov. Rick Perry is delivering the keynote address at an annual policy orientation organized by a leading state conservative think tank.
Perry will address the Texas Public Policy Foundation gathering at a downtown Austin hotel on Thursday morning. He appears ahead of an evening event featuring the two U.S. senators from Texas, Republicans John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.
The Texas Legislature reconvened this week and the policy orientation is meant to lay out conservative goals for the session. Perry has already said he'd like to see lawmakers use a resurgent Texas economy to push for tax cuts.
Meanwhile, Cruz has promised to repel efforts to expand federal gun-control laws and has even accused supporters of such measures of exploiting the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn.
