Greg Abbott urged Congress in May 2025 to finish the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, whose House-passed version Energy Innovation projected would eliminate 61,100 Texas jobs in 2030 and shrink the Texas economy by $8.5 billion that year.
Abbott also defended the February 2025 tariffs on Canada and Mexico as a tactic, and his office backed the added tariffs on China; the Yale Budget Lab projected the tariffs would lower 2025 U.S. growth by 0.6 percentage points, and China answered with a tariff on U.S. sorghum.
Greg Abbott's Statements on the Tax Law and Tariffs Behind Projected Texas Job Losses and Higher Prices
- Abbott Urged Congress to Finish a Bill Whose House Version Was Projected to Cost Texas 61,100 Jobs in 2030. On May 22, 2025, the day the House passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Greg Abbott thanked the House for its $12 billion in state border reimbursement and said that "there is more work yet to be done to get this legislation to the finish line." The law ends clean-energy tax credits on a schedule running through 2027. Energy Innovation's June 2025 analysis of the House-passed bill projected that it would cost Texas 61,100 jobs in 2030 and nearly 121,600 in 2035, and would shrink the Texas economy by $8.5 billion in 2030 and by $14 billion five years later. Its July 2025 analysis of the final law projects 760,000 lost jobs nationally by 2030.
- Abbott Defended the February 2025 Tariffs, Which Economists Projected Would Slow Growth and Cost Households $1,600 to $2,000. Greg Abbott told CBS News Texas in an interview published February 4, 2025 that "Everyone knows Trump uses tariffs as a tactic to achieve another goal," and his office later backed whatever tactics the president used on the tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, the Texas Tribune reported on February 27, 2025. The Yale Budget Lab estimated on March 3, 2025 that those tariffs, as planned, would cut U.S. economic growth by 0.6 percentage points in 2025 and leave the economy 0.3 to 0.4 percent smaller in the long run, at a cost of $1,600 to $2,000 for the average household. Texas bought more than $142 billion of goods from Mexico in 2023, all of which the tariffs would cover, the Tribune reported.
- Abbott Backed the Added China Tariff in February 2025; China Answered With a Sorghum Tariff and Sorghum Shipments to China Collapsed. Greg Abbott's office backed the February 2025 tariffs, which added a further 10% tariff on Chinese goods, saying he stood by whatever tactics the president used to fight drug trafficking, according to the Texas Tribune. On March 4, 2025, China answered the increase in the fentanyl tariff with a 10% tariff on U.S. sorghum and soybeans and a 15% tariff on wheat, corn and cotton, starting March 10, Faegre Drinker reported. As the trade dispute went on, U.S. sorghum "Shipments to China fell more than 95% in the first half of the year" in 2025, and "for farmers across Texas and the Southern Plains, the result has been a fragile Gulf basis," Southern Ag Today reported.
What the Policies Greg Abbott Backed Mean for Texas Workers and Businesses
- Texas would lose 1,000 battery-factory jobs and $129 billion in planned investment. Energy Innovation projected that the House-passed bill would eliminate 1,000 battery-factory jobs in Texas by 2030 as announced factories are cancelled, and would undercut $129 billion in announced private investment across 659 planned energy and manufacturing facilities in the state.
- Lower-income households would lose $900 to $1,100 to the tariffs. The Yale Budget Lab found the February and March 2025 tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China would take $900 to $1,100 a year from households at the bottom of the income scale, a larger share of their income than for the richest households.
Frequently Asked Questions About Greg Abbott on Economy and jobs
What is Greg Abbott's record on the economy and jobs under Trump?
Greg Abbott urged Congress to finish the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Energy Innovation's study of the House-passed version found would cost Texas tens of thousands of jobs, and he publicly backed the February 2025 tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. The Yale Budget Lab projected those tariffs would slow growth and raise household costs, and China answered them with a tariff on U.S. sorghum, whose sales to China then collapsed.
How does the law Greg Abbott backed affect clean-energy jobs in Texas?
Greg Abbott urged Congress to finish a law under which Texas is one of the five biggest losers, by Energy Innovation's July 2025 ranking of states by household energy cost increases and job losses. Energy Innovation's earlier study of the House-passed bill counted $62 billion already invested in 238 Texas energy and manufacturing facilities under the clean-energy credits the bill cuts back.
What happened to Texas sorghum farmers after Greg Abbott backed Trump's tariffs?
Greg Abbott publicly defended the president's tariffs in February 2025, and in a statement Abbott's office backed whatever tactics the president chose. China answered the March 2025 increase in the China tariff by taxing U.S. sorghum, and U.S. sorghum lost almost all of its sales to China in the first half of the year, while Southern Ag Today reported a weak Gulf market for Texas and Southern Plains growers.
Last updated: 2026-10-26