Below is a summary of the legislative outcomes of our advocacy issues for the 82^nd Regular Legislative Session. As of June 1, 2011, Governor Perry has called for a special session which began immediately after Sine Die of the regular session. Currently, budget issues, school finance, and healthcare-related concerns are the only issues on the Governor’s call. The legislature can only pass legislation related to issues on the Governor’s call, but the Governor can, and is expected to, add additional issues to the call. We will continue to monitor legislation filed and provide information and action alerts on any legislation on which we take a position. Special sessions are distinct from regular sessions, so the bill numbering starts from scratch (H.B. 1, H.B. 2, etc.).We will provide a separate set of online reports for those bills that we are tracking for this special session, you can view them here. You can download a PDF of this report here.

State Budget:

Overall the Legislature adopted a budget that cut total spending by $15.2 billion. They used a total of $3.2 billion from the Rainy Day fund to cover a supplemental appropriation for the current biennium and the costs of fighting wildfires.

Successes: Funding for abortion alternative providers increased from $8 million in the last biennium to $8.3 million in the upcoming biennium. Although no reductions were made to Medicaid nursing home care, the 3% cut to provider rates was not restored. Overall we were successful on this issue as a 33% cut to nursing home care was originally proposed. Funding for Poor and Homeless Programs was increased slightly to a total of $205 million over the biennium, and Children’s Mental Health funding was increased by $14 million from the base budget. Approximately the same amount of money was appropriated for the Child Nutrition program. Regarding abstinence education, the budget allocates $1.1 million—a $15,000 cut from the last biennium—but did not include language to weaken abstinence education standards. Efforts to expand gambling in Texas were successfully defeated.  We are very pleased to report that the prison chaplaincy program was fully restored in the budget at 100% of current funding. Finally, no embryonic stem cell research was explicitly funded in the budget. Because the revenue shortfall was so great for this biennium, we are counting level or slightly decreased funding as a success in some program areas.

Disappointments: The CHIP Perinatal program received a 36% cut, from $577 million to $369 million. No funding explicitly for homelessness prevention was allocated to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. An amendment to allow for funding of the Homelessness and Housing Support Program through the Texas Enterprise Fund was added to the housing department sunset bill, but the language is permissive rather than mandatory. The funding for this program is addressed in SB 1 of the special session.  There was a decrease of $10 million in prison diversion funding to a total of $556 million for the biennium.

Life and Family Life:

Successes: HB 15 (82-R), which provides access to a sonogram image for a mother, passed and has already been signed by the Governor. We are hopeful that this incremental legislation will save thousands of lives every year as mothers are better informed about the lives they are carrying. In addition, the Choose Life license plate bill has also already been signed by the Governor. During the special session, an amendment to ban taxpayer funding for abortion was added to an omnibus health care bill (82-1-SB 7) and the bill has been sent to the Governor. HB 824 (82-R), which would create an outreach program to promote a father’s involvement in the life of his unborn child passed. The bills targeting abortion alternative providers with additional signage and regulation all failed.

Disappointments: Unfortunately bills to prohibit abortion coverage on the health care exchange were not successful, nor were bills that would have strengthened the parental consent law related to judicial bypass. In addition, a bill that would have created greater protections against coerced abortion also failed on the calendar due to deadlines.

Pay Day Lending Regulation:

Disappointments: HB 410 (82-R) and SB 253 (82-R), which would have closed the loophole and required payday and auto title lenders to be regulated under the existing Finance Code in Texas law, were not passed.

Status: We did withdraw our opposition to HB 2592 (82-R) and HB 2594 (82-R) because they were improved in the committee process and on the House and Senate floor. The improvements included a lower level of licensure than we sought, the removal of a usury exemption, and some very basic data collection. However, because the bills do not cap interest rates and fees, we did not offer our full support of this legislation. There will be an interim study on this issue in order to monitor the industry and seek additional reform next session.

Immigration

Successes: Most of the anti-immigrant legislation failed to make it through the process in the regular session, including the controversial sanctuary cities legislation HB 12 (82-R). Efforts in the Special Session to revive the sanctuary cities legislation or require local participation the Secure Communities program all failed. Bills and amendments that would take away in-state tuition for undocumented students; require local law enforcement, non-profits, or hospitals to verify immigration status; and prohibit the state from publishing material in any language other than English were all defeated.

Disappointments: During the special session, a provision was added to SB 1 (82-1), a fiscal matters bill that must pass for the budget to balance and be certified, that would require driver’s license officers to request proof of citizenship or legal status for all applicants for a license or those renewing a license. We are saddened by this provision which creates more obstacles to obtaining a driver’s license increases the chance that people will drive without a license. SB 420 (82-R) also passed in the regular session. We opposed this bill because it limits access to public benefits by allowing the department of state health services to consider the income of sponsored immigrants’ sponsors when determining public benefits.

Education

Successes: Several child care improvement bills passed, improving the quality of child care by expanding the training requirements for employees and operators as well as increasing inspections of the facilities. These changes will help improve the social and emotional development of children in child care across the state. SB 975 (82-R) also passed, allowing public junior colleges to operate drop-out recovery programs.

Disappointments: Neither of our education tax credit bills (HB 2353 (82-R) and SB 1847 (82-R)) passed. Extending UIL participation to private and parochial schools also failed in the final days of the session. Unfortunately, the full day pre-K program was eliminated in the budget.

Health and Human Services

Successes: We are pleased to report that the following bills passed: SB 89 (82-R), which expands the summer nutrition program for needy children by increasing the number of districts eligible to participate, SB 41 (82-R) prohibiting the use of restraints for persons with disabilities, and SB 1481 (82-R) recognizing the personal dignity of persons with disabilities.

Advance Directives Success: HB 3520 (82-R) failed to pass, which we opposed because it would grant surrogates an effective veto and could require health professionals to provide treatment that is contrary to a patient’s best interest and their corresponding duty of care, on an indefinite basis. Also, we were successful in getting an amendment added to SB 8 (82-R) that calls for an interim study of advance directives in order to develop a consensus reform bill for next legislative session. Unfortunately this bill did not pass, but we will still request that an interim study be conducted on this issue.

Ending Human Trafficking Successes: Many of the anti-human trafficking bills that we supported passed including SB 24 (82-R), HB 3000 (82-R), HB 289 (82-R), HB 2014 (82-R), and HB 2015 (82-R). HCR 68, which calls for an interim study on human trafficking, also passed. This package of bills will assist in punishing traffickers, providing assistance to victims, and reducing demand for human trafficking.

Disappointments: Unfortunately HB 2711 (82-R), which would have sealed the records of minor victims, did not pass. The smoking ban came very close to passage, but was stripped out of a bill during conference committee. Smoking ban bills were reintroduced in the special session but failed to pass. Regarding access to housing, while a provision was passed that allows the Governor to give permission to move up to $10 million from the Texas Enterprise Fund to the Department of Housing and Community Affairs to operate the Homeless Housing and Services Program (HHSP) program, the language is permissive and therefore the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the House must concur on the disbursement of any dollars from the Fund.  It is doubtful that funding will be appropriated for HHSP, and even the maximum appropriation of $10 million is half of the current funding level for HHSP. This drastic cut will likely result in job losses, service disruptions and possible evictions.

Criminal Justice

Successes: There were many positive gains in Criminal Justice Reform, including measures to assist the poor or juveniles with paying fees and fines, bills that increase access to medical care for inmates, a bill which allows for the expunction of arrest records in cases where there is no conviction, and an increase in training standards for juvenile case managers. There were also bills passed to reduce the use of the death penalty, such as HB 371 (82-R), which partially neutralizes the law of parties’ provisions that allow for the executions for defendants who assisted in criminal activities but did not commit murder. In addition, HB 1646 (82-R) passed, to provide better representation for defendants in capital cases. SB 122 (82-R) also passed, allowing courts to order post-conviction testing of DNA.

Disappointments: Unfortunately, HB 819 (82-R) and HB 852 (82-R), which would have ended the use of the death penalty in Texas and HB 1670 (82-R), and SB 1079 (82-R) which would prevent a mentally retarded defendant from being sentenced to death all failed to pass. Also failing to pass was HB 855 (82-R), which would have eliminated the death penalty for individuals considered under the law of parties. In addition, HB 377 (82-R) which expands the application of the death penalty passed. The innocence commission bill, which would have created a commission to investigate wrongful convictions, failed on a house floor vote. Also, the bills that would have required county jails to discharge inmates during the day, known as “safe release” bills, failed at the final stages of passage during the regular session. Bills that would have assisted in the transition of ex-offenders also did not pass, including a supervised re-entry bill and a bill that would have allowed drug felons (and therefore family members that they are responsible for) to receive SNAP (food stamps).

Updated July 7, 2011