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The Brief: May 2, 2011
“The news Sunday night of Osama bin Laden‘s killing drew jubilation and solemn reflection nationwide, and at home here in Texas. Speculation of bin Laden’s death erupted on the web at around 8:45 p.m. Central last night after the White House announced that the president would be addressing the nation. (Here’s how the announcement leaked out.) Celebratory crowds gathered outside the White House, in Times Square and at Ground Zero as the president announced the development, declaring that ‘justice has been done…’”
(View full article here).
Children’s Hospitals Face Brunt of Medicaid Cuts…
“When Steve Woerner, president and chief executive of Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi, looks at the budget state lawmakers are debating, he sees red — profit-dashing, service-slashing red. Despite some efforts to lessen the blow to pediatric health care providers, Texas’ proposed budget cuts will likely have a disproportionate effect on children’s hospitals, which treat the state’s youngest and poorest patients. The financial implications will not mean halting operations, or necessarily curbing patient care, children’s hospital advocates say…”
(View full article here)
Why the Texas House Won’t Agree to Senate Budget
“It might not matter, in the end, whether the Senate wants to use some of the Rainy Day Fund to balance the budget. The House isn’t likely to go along unless the proposition is delivered on a tea cart pushed by Gov. Rick Perry and an entourage that includes the leaders of the third-party conservative groups who have been hounding lawmakers via email, phone banking and television advertising to hold the line. It’s even harder to go on that sort of suicide mission behind a lieutenant governor who tells senators one day that he supports using the fund — on a convoluted contingency basis — then tells the news media that his preference is to use “non-tax revenues,” and then tells the senators, in a public letter also distributed to the news media, that he’s behind the budget as prepared by the Senate Finance Committee, complete with the Rainy Day thing. And, as that’s going out, says he’s behind them, but would prefer those other alternatives… ”
(View full article here).
House Sets Budget Negotiating Rules
“The House is sending its five budget conferees — Reps. Jim Pitts, John Otto, Sylvester Turner, John Zerwas and Myra Crownover — off to negotiate with the Senate, but they want to tie their hands on certain issues, instructing them on what’s acceptable to add, subtract, or leave alone when they talk with the other side. They’ve told them — on motions from Reps. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, and Phil King, R-Weatherford, not to use money from the Rainy Day Fund when they negotiate with the Senate, and not to restore funding for family planning service that was deleted in the House. Sending a not-so-nice message to Gov. Rick Perry, the House also agreed to instruct the conferees to go with the Senate’s plan to zero-out the Emerging Technology Fund… ”
(View full article here).
Inside Intelligence: The Security of State Data Is…
“This week, we asked the insiders about the fallout from the data breach at the state comptroller’s office, where 3.5 million names in a database were left unprotected on the agency’s website for a year. The names, along with social security numbers and other information, came to the comptroller from the teacher and employee retirement systems and from the Texas Workforce Commission. Comptroller Susan Combs stayed in bunker mode for more than two weeks; as our survey was ending, she began a series of media interviews and mea culpas, apologizing and explaining how the breach happened and what she’s doing about it. An overwhelming majority of our insiders — 81 percent — say the state should bear whatever costs the people on those lists incur as a result of identity theft that results from the agency’s blunder; 16 percent said it shouldn’t…”
(View full article here).
Comptroller Withholds Certain Records After Data Security Lapse
“On March 31, the Texas Comptroller’s Office says, it discovered that personal information of 3.5 million Texans had been posted on a public computer server. So what were agency officials doing over the next five days to address that problem?…On April 12, the day after the mistake was made public, the American-Statesman filed a request under the state public information law seeking ‘all emails and other written communication within the comptroller’s office from March 31, 2011, through today pertaining to the exposure of the 3.5 million records.’ In response to that request, the comptroller’s office released hundreds of pages of documents — but none of the documents released were dated as being created from March 31 through April 5…”
(View full article here).
Suit Wants $3.5 Billion for State Computer Glitch
“A second class-action lawsuit has been filed in a Houston federal court against Comptroller Susan Combs on behalf of 3.5 million Texans whose personal information was exposed to public access on a government computer server for more than a year. ‘We are seeking the $1,000 statutory penalty for each of these individuals whose privacy was violated by the Comptroller,’ said attorney Muhammad Aziz, of the Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Sorrels, Agosto and Friend law firm. The named plaintiff is Sherry A. McClung, a Lufkin school teacher…”
(View full article here).
In Hunt for Revenue, It’s Big Tobacco vs. Little
“It’s big tobacco vs. little tobacco in the effort to smoke out new revenue for the Texas budget. Large tobacco companies, which fork over half a billion dollars to the state every year as part of a 1998 lawsuit settlement, want small cigarette manufacturers to pay their share. They’re backing a measure on life support in the Texas House that would tax the small manufacturers to raise tens of millions of dollars per biennium — money lawmakers acknowledge would come in more than handy as they slash health care funding to meet a massive budget shortfall…”
(View full article here).
Amid Fiscal Turmoil, House Votes to Cut Tax on Loose-Leaf Tobacco
“As many places across the country raise tobacco taxes — in an effort to reduce usage and save on public health costs down the road — the Texas House has gone in the other direction. Members of the Texas House on Wednesday approved a bill to lower a tax on Red Man and other brands of loose-leaf chewing tobacco. When Rep. Allan Ritter, R-Nederland , laid out House Bill 2599, one freshman House member from Central Texas couldn’t believe his ears. ‘I just had to clarify. It’s cutting taxes to chewing tobacco?’ a shocked Rep. Jason Isaac, R-Dripping Springs, asked from the floor. Isaac was the only member to question the measure, which passed 83-53. ‘We just created an incentive for people to use cancer-causing products,’ Isaac said after the bill was approved. ‘When we have the fiscal problems that we have, it’s wrong to be cutting taxes on products like chewing tobacco…’”
(View full article here).
Texas Politicians Vary on Credit for Bin Laden Death
“When it comes to acknowledging those responsible for bringing down Osama bin Laden — which politicians are understandably eager to do — there is a noticeable inconsistency in who Texas’ leaders are choosing to mention in their official statements.Virtually all give credit to the armed forces, but there appears to be some disagreement about which leaders deserve a similar nod. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst thanks former President George W. Bush and current President Barack Obama (in that order). U.S. Rep.Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, thanks Obama, but not Bush. Gov. Rick Perry — like Attorney General Greg Abbott and Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones — mentions neither…”
(View full article here).
The Brief: May 3, 2011
“With one major tweak, abortion sonogram legislation inched closer to the governor’s desk Monday. The state Senate gave initial approval to a bill that would require women seeking an abortion to undergo a sonogram and have the details of the fetus described to them before the procedure. It’s not the first time this session that the Senate has taken up the sonogram bill…”
(View full article here).
Pay Day Loans in the Cross Hairs
“The Rev. Chad R. Chaddick, pastor of San Antonio’s Northeast Baptist Church, considers it part of his mission to help families with financial setbacks, but he also insists that people with recurring problems meet with a church deacon for gentle advice about sticking to a budget. Just before Christmas last year, one of his deacons was helping a family sort through bills when he made an alarming discovery: The family had been making $200 payments to roll over a payday loan — every two weeks for four months – without making a dent in the principal. They had shelled out $1,800, but still owed the original $700. Now, they were in danger of losing their home…The discovery prompted Chaddick to join a coalition of unlikely allies – faith-based organizations, charities such as Goodwill, liberal advocacy groups and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle – committed to reining in the state’s 3,000 payday and auto title lenders, who offer short-term loans with expensive penalties if they are not repaid in full…”
(View the full article here)
Abortion Sonogram Moves to Governor’s Desk
“House lawmakers have sent the controversial abortion sonogram bill to the governor’s desk — after a last-ditch effort by disability rights advocates to change language they called highly offensive. The bill, which requires women seeking abortions to get a sonogram at least 24 hours ahead of time and to listen to a description of the fetus, includes an exception for women who have been the victims of rape or incest or who know the fetus has an irreversible medical condition or abnormality…”
(View full article here).
House Gives Early Endorsement to Patient Privacy Bill
“House lawmakers have given an early endorsement to Rep. Lois Kolkhorst’s bill to protect Texans’ private medical information. Kolkhorst’s bill — one of the Public Health Committee chairwoman’s top priorities this session — would ban the for-profit sale of personal health information without a patient’s consent, and set up a process for notifying patients of the electronic transfer of their medical records. Companies or providers who break the rules would be subject to heightened fines — up to $3,000 per violation — and legal damages up to $1.5 million…”
(View full article here).
The Brief: May 4, 2011
“Amid a flurry of activity in the Legislature on Tuesday, the Senate quietly eyed a procedural oddity it may use today to pass the state budget. After failing again on Tuesday to corral the 21 votes needed under the Senate’s two-thirds rule, Sen. Steve Ogden, the Bryan Republican who chairs the chamber’s Finance Committee, indicated that he may break Senate tradition by pursuing a loophole of sorts in the upper chamber’s rules. As the Tribune’s Ross Ramsey explains, Senate rules specify that on Wednesdays and Thursdays, only a simple majority — or, currently, 15 votes — is required to bring bills to the floor that have already passed through the House…”
(View full article here).
Feds Deny Disaster Declaration for Texas Wildfires
“The federal government has denied the state’s request for a major disaster declaration to help recover from the wildfires that have burned more than 2.2 million acres since November. Gov. Rick Perry criticized the denial in a statement released by his office late Tuesday. ‘I am dismayed that this administration has denied Texans the much needed assistance they deserve,” Perry said. “It is not only the obligation of the federal government, but its responsibility under law to help its citizens in times of emergency.’ The Texas Forest Service has reported more than 9,000 fires that destroyed or damaged more than 400 homes, the statement said…”
(View full article here).
Cornyn, Perry Blast Feds Over Wildfires; FEMA Responds
“Texas politicians are continuing to blast the federal government’s decision not to give Texas a disaster declaration for the wildfires, which would have boosted the amount of federal money flowing to the state to deal with the crisis. In a conference call with reporters today, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said he had no idea why the state’s request got denied. ‘Texas is not a place that has received, to my view, equal and fair handed treatment with other places around the country,’ Cornyn said. ‘There seems to be a lot of politics in the calculations…’”
(View full article here).
House Backs Bill to Allow Guns in Cars at Work
“In the Texas House, Republican members are often faithful supporters of issues important to the gun and business lobbies. On Tuesday, they had to choose between the two. And guns won. With a voice vote, the House passed Senate Bill 321, which was sponsored by Rep. Tim Kleinschmidt, R-Lexington. Before the debate, he had swapped out his similar House version for the Senate bill, which has already passed the upper chamber. The measure would prohibit employers from banning guns in their employees’ vehicles that are parked at work. Kleinschmidt said that in Texas, where many people hunt, residents see vehicles as extension of their homes and should have the right to keep firearms locked in their vehicles without fear of being fired or disciplined…”
(View full article here).
Juvenile Justice Merger Heads to Governor
“A bill to merge Texas’ two state juvenile justice agencies is headed to the governor for a signature. The bill by Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, would consolidate the Texas Youth Commission and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission, which manage the state’s youth offenders, into a new state agency, the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. Whitmire and state Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Plano, worked together on the bill, which is estimated to save up to $150 million over the next biennium. The new agency will have an 11-member board appointed by Gov. Rick Perry…”
(View full interview here).
The Brief: May 5, 2011
“Democrats — stripped of power on Wednesday after Republicans skirted a Senate procedural tradition — may now be shut out of the budget debate entirely. That’s the danger they face, at least, as a conference committee of five representatives and five senators prepares to reconcile the House rendition of the bill, passed in early April, with the Senate version, which the upper chamber passed Wednesday along party lines…”
(View full article here).
Perry on Senate Budget, Sanctuary Cities and Rainy Days
“This afternoon, Gov. Rick Perry spoke to a gaggle of reporters at the Capitol, taking questions on yesterday’s Senate budget vote, tomorrow’s sanctuary city House floor debate and more. On what he thinks of the Senate budget: ‘It’s a good step in the right direction.’ On whether the Senate budget spends too much: ‘I don’t know about that. That’s the reason we’re sending it to conference. I won’t judge it at this particular point in time. We know we’ve got to be fiscally conservative…’”
(View full article here).
The Brief: May 6, 2011
“Immigration legislation — mostly dormant so far this session — will see some action in the Legislature today. The chamber is set to take up Republican Rep. Burt Solomons‘ so-called ‘sanctuary cities’ bill, which would prevent cities and other entities from adopting policies that prevent local law enforcement from enforcing federal immigration laws. Gov. Rick Perry at the beginning of the session declared the issue one of his five “emergency” legislative items…”
(View full article here).
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