Sen. John Cornyn and Sen. Ted Cruz made a trip to Texas Thursday to highlight an unusual event in the state's history.

They spoke with officials behind the so-called "Galveston Plan," a decision in 1981 for county employees to opt out of Social Security and pay into personal retirement accounts. Galveston, Matagorda and Brazoria counties have all been using the alternative plan for the last 30 years.

In Thursday's "Capital Tonight," we spoke with Sen. Cornyn in Houston about how Galveston's story applies to the debate over entitlement reform in Washington.

Emily Ramshaw of the Texas Tribune stopped by the studio to talk about a new interactive feature now available online. It's called the Lawmaker Explorer, and it allows Texans to see potential conflicts of interest when it comes to setting policy.

We also talked to political strategists Harold Cook and Ted Delisi about what the new Tribune feature could mean this session. Click the video below to see more.