By Jennifer Carr Allmon, Associate Director, Texas Catholic Conference

The 81^st regular session of the Texas Legislature has just closed, but they clearly have not finished their business in the capitol for the summer.  At the time of this writing, the Governor has already indicated that he will be calling a special session to address some of these issues. 

Texas Catholic Conference divides our advocacy work into five areas: Life Issues, Immigration, Education, Health & Human Services and Criminal Justice Reform.  While many of the concerns of the Texas Bishops fall into several of these categories, we determine which area to place an issue based on which committees of the Texas Legislature work on these types of bills. 

Life Issues: The budget includes an increase of $3 million in funding for alternatives to abortion programs and continues funding for adult stem cell research.  We are disappointed that there are no other successes in terms of pro-life legislation this session.  Efforts to allow women seeking abortions to view their ultrasound, to create a Choose Life license plate, to ban funding for embryonic stem cell research, and to improve reporting and informed consent for abortion were all defeated.   We are pleased that all of the bills we opposed that would reduce abstinence education, require distribution of emergency contraception, allow for creation of embryos for research and destruction, or impair informed consent for abortion were also defeated.

Immigration: The session started with multiple anti-immigrant bills that were all able to be defeated. While this session was a mostly defensive session on the immigration issue at the state level, we did see the passage of one positive bill that allows an excused absence for children participating in activities to pursue citizenship.  We look forward to continued efforts by the U.S. Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform which will bring our immigrant brothers and sisters out of the shadows and improve our nation's security.

Education: Successes include an expansion of pre-kindergarten and post-secondary programs, and restorations of the licensing exemptions for public and private afterschool care.  We are disappointed that there was no success on parental choice in education.

Health & Human Services: Affordable housing initiatives, lifetime respite programs, nutrition initiatives to reduce childhood obesity, funding for health benefits for autism spectrum disorders, and legislation aimed at reducing human trafficking in Texas are among the many successful Health & Human Service initiatives of the session.  Unfortunately efforts to institute a state-wide smoking ban and to improve CHIP and Medicaid failed this session.

Criminal Justice Reform: Criminal Justice reform was a major highlight of the session with passage of bills to ban shackling of pregnant inmates during labor and delivery, set standards for the treatment of pregnant inmates, establish a plan for re-entry and re-integration programs for ex-offenders, and create a loan repayment program for certain correctional officers. While we did not succeed in any legislation to ban the death penalty, the legislature passed bills to require training and experience in capital cases for indigent defense attorneys and the creation of the innocence commission and the office of capital writs.  We hope these efforts will result in fewer executions in Texas.

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25 TCC-Supported Bills Sent to the Governor 

1. HB 130 - This bill extends pre-kindergarten programs to a full day and among other enhancements sets limits on class size.
   
2. HB 136 - This bill would task various state agencies with creating strategies to increase community awareness of prekindergarten programs through programs that provide information relating to public assistance programs.
   
3. HB 192 - This bill would allow students to be excused from classes in order to complete citizenship applications or participate in naturalization ceremonies. 
   
4. HB 451 - This bill expands current law to require that health benefit plans provide coverage for children between the ages of 2 and 18 years who are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
   
5. HB 498 - This bill would allow for the creation of an Innocence Commission to review post conviction exonerations to ascertain errors and defects in the criminal procedures and criminal justice system, and develop solutions, methods, procedures, and programs to prevent future wrongful convictions.
   
6. HB 518 - This bill allows for the creation of a pilot program to provide student loan repayment assistance to certain correctional officers.
   
7. HB 533 - This bill would include human trafficking as an offense in the State Penal Code and would impose a civil liability on people who engage in human trafficking, as well as those who intentionally benefit from participating in a venture that traffics another person.
   
8. HB 635 - This bill allows the Texas Education Agency to seek, accept, and distribute grants for the benefit of public elementary and secondary education.
   
9. HB 802 - This bill allows for the creation of a lifespan respite services program to promote the provision of respite services.
   
10. HB 1029 - This bill allows the development, rehabilitation, or expansion of affordable housing to be considered a public improvement project and therefore helps create incentives for the community to develop affordable housing solutions.
    
11. HB 1372 - This bill adds "trafficking of persons" to the definition of victims in the code of criminal procedure.
    
12. HB 1622 - This bill would allow for the creation of a children's access to nutritious food program to award grants to nonprofit organizations for the purpose of allowing food banks to provide children at risk of hunger or obesity with access to nutritious food outside the school day.
    
13. HB 1630 - This bill states that if children covered by the children's health plan are placed in a facility or other setting that would result in a loss of his or her coverage, the children's eligibility is suspended during the time that they are in the facility or other setting. Furthermore, eligibility is automatically reinstated when the child is released.
    
14. HB 1711 - This bill requires the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to establish a comprehensive reentry and reintegration plan for offenders released or discharged from a correctional facility.
    
15. HB 1935 - This bill establishes a Texas Adult Career Education Grant Program to provide grants to provide unemployed and underemployed adults with the postsecondary education necessary to obtain living-wage careers in high-demand occupations in the local community and use methodologies proven to achieve measurable results in developing the skill sets of unemployed and underemployed adults to enable those persons and their families to achieve financial independence.
    
16. HB 2058 - This bill requires that attorneys appointed to serve as lead counsel for indigent defendants in capital cases have a higher standard of qualification, including proficiency and commitment to quality representation in death penalty cases.
    
17. HB 3653 - This bill prohibits the use of restraints on a pregnant inmate during her transport to a medical facility,  as well as during her labor, delivery, or recovery from delivery, unless necessary for the security of staff or the infant, or if there is a substantial risk that the woman will attempt escape.
    
18. HB 3654 - This bill would establish specific minimum standards for the provision of medical, mental health, and dietary services to and the housing and work assignment needs of persons who are pregnant and confined in a county jail.
    
19. HB 4009 - This bill would create an assistance program for domestic victims of trafficking. The program would develop and implement a program designed to assist domestic victims, including victims who are children, in accessing necessary services.
    
20. SB 68 - This bill reinstates the exemption of TEPSAC member agency accredited schools from licensure as child care providers.
    
21. SB 282 - This bill provides grants for childhood nutrition programs.
    
22. SB 395 - This bill would allow for the creation of an early childhood health and nutrition interagency council to research the health of children under the age of five in Texas compared with other states, the significance of nutrition and physical activity in the development of these children in early childhood care settings in order to identify barriers to improving early childhood health through nutrition and physical standards and best practices for improving nutrition and physical activity.
    
23. SB 662 - This bill would allow for the establishment and use of a mausoleum beneath certain religious buildings.
    
24. SB 870 - This bill allows for the creation of a public health awareness plan in order to explore past successful health awareness efforts.
    
25. SB 1091 - This bill would allow for the creation of an Office of Capital writs. This Office would recommend individuals with proficiency and a commitment to providing quality representation to defendants in death penalty cases to the Court of Criminal Appeals.