There have been two major school finance bills filed: House Bill (HB) 3 and Senate Bill 4. HB 3 was discussed in committee this week. The bill increases public school funding by $9 billion over the amount required for enrollment growth. More importantly than the amount of funds is how they are spent. HB 3 provides funding for: full-day pre-Kindergarten for four-year-olds and half-day for three-year-olds,
low-income students, English language learners, and students with dyslexia and related disabilities, and increased pay to reward teachers for student growth and success.
The bill originally included funding to reward improved reading and college/career readiness, but teacher unions—unfortunately—stripped that section from the bill. We support HB 3 and will work to improve it for the sake of all Texas children.
Conversely, our Student Protection Package bills, SB 1231, SB 1256, and SB 1230, which would protect all Texas students from educator misconduct and abuse in private and public schools in a variety ways, are moving along in the legislative process. The Legislature also recently voted for HB 3, a comprehensive school finance bill we supported. We are happy SB 1256 was added to HB 3 and hope the conference committee will keep that amendment on the bill.
The Texas bishops have sought end-of-life care reforms over the last decade to improve the Texas Advance Directives Act. This week the Health and Human Services committee will have a hearing on several bills related to end-of-life decisions and the ethics review process for intractable conflicts between families and healthcare providers.
SB 2089 and SB 2129 seek to make changes to the Texas Advance Directives Act which the Bishops oppose.
HOW TO TAKE ACTION: The Senate Health and Human Services Committee Hearing on these bills is Wednesday. Please urge the Committee NOT to vote out SB 2089 and SB 2129. You can find their contact information here (click on their name to find their bio page with email). Please consider this language to use in your message:
As a Catholic Texan who is concerned about end of life care, I urge you to vote against SB 2089 and SB 2129, which make significant changes to the ethics committee review process that exclude consideration of medical conditions and eliminates reasonable medical judgment from the decision-making process. I oppose these bills because they allow an assault on the dignity of the human person by requiring unnecessary pain and suffering for an incompetent patient at the end of his/her life, when the patient's family is demanding inappropriate medical interventions against the conscience and medical judgement of the physician.
Instead, the bishops support continued reform of the Texas Advance Directives Act and encourage passing SB 2355 by Senator Eddie Lucio to ensure ethics committees do not have a financial conflict of interest and do not make decisions based on quality of life views of patients with disabilities.
Our Trigger Ban bills, HB 1685, SB 2160, and HB 2350 did not advance. These bills would have prohibited abortion in the event that the Supreme Court overrules Roe. v. Wade. There are still two other pro-life bills close to passing: HB 16 to protect infants born alive after an abortion, and SB 22 to protect taxpayers from funding abortion providers with local and state tax money.
The Texas bishops have prioritized payday and auto title lending reform to address this form of usury, making it one of their top public policy goals. The bishops have, as individuals, worked over the last six years in more than 40 cities to establish local ordinances regulations to protect borrowers from the most egregious industry practices.
Unfortunately, HB 3899 filed by State Rep Drew Springer would prohibit municipalities from adopting or enforcing ordinances, regulations, or rules such as these. This bill violates the Catholic principal of subsidiarity, which notes that governmental decisions are best made by those closest to those impacted by the decisions.
HOW TO TAKE ACTION: The State Affairs Committee Hearing on this bill has already taken place. Please urge the State Affairs Committee NOT to vote it out. You can find their contact information here (click on their picture to find their bio page with email). Please consider this language to use in your message:
As a Catholic Texan who is concerned about the plight of the poor and vulnerable in our state, I urge you to address the proliferation of payday lending by voting AGAINST HB 3899 unless it is amended to exempt payday lending ordinances. This bill would pre-empt local zoning ordinances, including payday lending ordinances, that limit the prevalence of predatory payday and auto-title loans. I respectfully request you and Rep. Springer continue to work with local faith leaders to maintain the protections our pastors have fought for in their local communities.
A bill which we are calling, “Making Work Pay” was recently filed. SB 643 and HB 1483 by Sen. Perry and Rep. Frank create a pilot program that tests whether a slow reduction of benefits, paired with wrap-around case management aimed at securing a living wage job, emergency savings, and debt management plan, will help clients reach long-term self-sufficiency independent of public benefits. The TCCB supports this bill to incentivize self-sufficiency in anti-poverty programs.
A private school student protection bill package has been filed by Sen. Paul Bettencourt and Rep. Morgan Meyer. The bill numbers are:
Ensuring private schools receive reports and can access similar data as public schools on educators would strengthen the overall statutory framework and legislative purpose for preventing abuse and neglect in our state for all Texas students.
Rep. Giovanni Capriglione filed a Trigger Ban bill this week, HB 1685. This bill would allow Texas to prohibit abortion if the United States Supreme Court overrules, in whole or in part, Roe v. Wade, or issues any other decision recognizing the authority of the states to prohibit abortion; or if an amendment to the US Constitution restores to states the authority to prohibit abortion.The TCCB supports this legislation.
Rep. Kyle Kacal filed HB 2735 which would require abortionists to have malpractice insurance. This bill would require a physician who regularly performs or induces abortions to maintain professional liability insurance or a bond of at least $1 million payable to a woman who was harmed as a result of an abortion complication. The TCCB supports this bill to ensure those harmed by abortion are not without a remedy in the case of a complication.
Rep. Candy Noble and Sen. Donna Campbell filed HB 1929 and SB 389, respectively, to prohibit state and local governments from entering into contracts with abortion providers or affiliates. The TCCB supports these bills to stop local governments from subsidizing abortion providers and affiliates with taxpayer supported buildings and programs.
Rep. Mike Lang filed HB 2271 that allows the Attorney General to use no more than 2% of the Choose Life License Plate Fund to advertise the Choose Life license plate. The TCCB supports this bill to increase awareness of the plate which raises funds for adoption programs and encourages alternatives to abortion.
Sen. Bob Hall filed SB 1027 to amend the sonogram requirement before an abortion for a minor under judicial bypass procedures. Previously, the minor could choose not to receive a verbal explanation of the sonogram images. This bill would require her to receive a verbal explanation. The TCCB supports this bill as a part of informed consent for the mother and to increase respect of the dignity of unborn human life.
While the bail reform bills we prioritized - HB 1323 and SB 628 - have not advanced, there is still a chance to pass HB 2020, which does provide incremental improvements for bail reform. There are several House bills in the Senate that will reform the use of capital punishment, such as HB 1030 and HB 1139, and we are hopeful they will continue to move.
The Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court has called on the legislature to pass bail reform, which is encouraging as this is one of our priorities under our restorative justice area. For example, one bill that the TCCB supports is HB 601 filed by Rep. Four Price. That bill increases the accuracy of information collected about mentally ill persons who are accused of a crime. This will allow courts to make more informed decisions about release on personal bond and the recommended services provided to the person after such release. The TCCB supports this bill as an improvement to the state's bail system. Among other restorative justice issues, we are also supporting the bills referred to as “Second Look” (HB 256 & SB 155) filed by Rep. Moody and Sen. Rodriguez, respectively, on parole reform.
HB 1483, our “Making Work Pay” bill that will reduce the benefits cliff for working families, has advanced out of the Senate Finance committee and only needs a final vote in the Senate to pass. The TCCB sent out a number of advocacy requests in the last few weeks on payday lending. Thank you for your successful advocacy to stop HB 3899 and HB 3292. HB 3899 would have prohibited cities from regulating payday lenders and would have stricken more than 40 local ordinances which rein in abusive payday and auto-title lending. HB 3292 would have reestablished a predatory lending practice, sale-leasebacks, that was ended by the legislature in 2001. Your advocacy was crucial in ensuring that these bills did not advance. The House Calendars Committee did not set these bill for a vote.