How would Texas take over the functions Washington used to handle?

Mostly by expanding what Texas already does. For nearly every function Washington performs, Texas already runs a state-level counterpart. Independence is less about building new machinery than about scaling up machinery that already exists and filling a handful of genuine gaps.

Texas already has a counterpart to almost every federal function

This is the fact that defuses the whole worry. Texas has a state-level analog to nearly every cabinet-level federal department. Defense has the Texas Military Department. Law enforcement has the Department of Public Safety and the Texas Rangers. Environmental protection has the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Energy has the Railroad Commission. Land and resources have the General Land Office. Money and revenue have the Comptroller. Roads have the Texas Department of Transportation. The state runs its own power grid through ERCOT. The institutions are not theoretical. They are operating today, and most of them would simply take on a larger role.

The handoff happens in phases, not overnight

Independence is reached through a transition, not a single switch. After a vote, existing arrangements keep running while the details are negotiated and authority transfers in an orderly way. Things continue as they have until they change, deliberately and on a schedule. The mail moves, the lights stay on, services continue. The work of shifting authority from the federal level to the Texas level proceeds underneath, without leaving Texans without the services they rely on.

The four baskets of work

The job after a vote sorts into four buckets. Constitutional changes update the founding document to function as a nation. Statutory changes fill gaps where Texas had deferred to federal law and build out capacity, including growing the Texas Military Department into a full national defense. International agreements set up trade, travel, and recognition. And a negotiated settlement with Washington handles the orderly division of assets and responsibilities. Each basket is concrete work, and each is the ordinary business of a nation organizing itself.

Where there are real gaps, Texas fills or retires them

Honesty matters here. After decades in the union, some functions were left entirely to Washington, and Texas will have to decide what to do about each one. The United Kingdom faced the same situation leaving the European Union and carried existing rules over with legislation while it sorted out what to keep. Texas can do the same. And true to its low-regulation tradition, Texas may choose to let many union-imposed programs lapse rather than re-create them. What to keep, what to rebuild, and what to retire is a decision for the people of Texas and their elected representatives.

The bottom line

Texas takes over Washington's functions by scaling up the state agencies it already runs, handing off authority in an orderly transition, and deciding for itself which gaps to fill and which federal programs simply do not need to come along.