STATE BILLS IN THIS ISSUE:

• Y2K (Year 2000)
• Abortion
• Children's health care
• Social promotion
• Voucher
• State Constitution
• Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)
• Homosexual agenda
• Immunizations
• On a lighter note (a "pork" bill?)

The 150 Texas House members and 31 Senators are busily filing bills and casting votes. In this update, I want to discuss some newly-filed bills.

Y2K (Year 2000)

• SB 598 by Duncan and HB 9 by McCall address the Y2K issue. Our computer scientist Bo Armstrong is tracking these and will keep us posted. The small number assigned to the House bill communicates its special importance to Speaker Laney.

• TEF supports a newly-filed parental consent bill by Rep. King.

• HB 1487 and HB 1639 deal with child health INSURANCE plans for poor children. We are watching closely the development of the Texas Healthy Kids Corp. (THKC) since we were its major opponents last session. Legislators thought they'd addressed our concerns by proposing that THKC be “privatized” in five years. Since the end of last session, the Congress has passed a federal KidCare bill that will take Texas' tax dollars to Washington, D.C. then return a portion to us-IF we obey their guidelines of how to spend “their” money. Called the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), it is Hillary Clinton's scheme to provide “universal INSURANCE coverage” for all Americans-children first. We do NOT have a children's health care crisis and the THKC does NOT provide health care-it is simply a plan to track Americans' health from birth to death by dictating health insurance coverage.
  Today in Austin, the greatest concern is that there will be significant “spillover” of children the state is seeking to cover with the CHIP funds into the Medicaid program. At the present time, the federal government provides a better match of state funds for their CHIP program than for Medicaid. The bottom line is: Texas taxpayers will pay more for Medicaid as a result of the federal CHIP program.

Social promotion

• On February 18th the Senate passed unanimously SB 1 dealing with social promotion. While no one thinks it is fair to promote a child to the next grade until he accomplishes grade-level work, one Senate amendment causes concern. It would nullify the bill UNLESS programs receive sufficient state funding. This could lead to more “Robin Hood-style” funding schemes. We're talking to House members about this concern.

Voucher

• HB 709 would dedicate state funds for private schools. We're concerned that state funding would lead to state REGULATION of private/religious schools. Gov. Bush has called for “accountability” which probably means a requirement that private schools administer the TAAS and be accredited by the state. If Texas approves a “pilot voucher,” then the Courts would surely add to those two requirements. Many consider the Wisconsin voucher as a model program, but it has over 300 pages of regulations, mostly imposed by the Courts rather than the legislators.

Linking the voucher to the TAAS is a bad idea because it is NOT a good standard. For example, the TAAS writing portion denies grading of “facts” like spelling, grammar, or sentence and paragraph structure. TEF opposes state regulation of private schools.

State Constitution

• SJR 1, a constitutional amendment to rewrite Texas' constitution, would drastically change the way Texans elect statewide officials and judges. The governor would appoint the Agriculture Commissioner, Land Commissioner and members of Railroad Commission. He would also appoint the members of the Texas Supreme Court, Texas Court of Appeals, and all District Judges. At the end of their terms, Texans could decide whether we want to keep the judges in office. State Board of Education members would also be appointed by the governor. Replacing elected officials with appointed officials is a BAD idea.

• HJR 53 by Wilson is a constitutional amendment to establish a constitutional revision commission and to convene a constitutional convention. The examples in SJR 1 should be proof of the intended mischief toward our state constitution. It's better to leave it alone; we oppose this bill.

Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)

• HB 601 and SB 138 attempt to deal with restrictions on religious exercise resulting from a 1990 federal court decision. Some believe free exercise of religion will be better protected under state constitutions than under the federal Constitution, while others maintain RFRA will harm land use and zoning ordinances. After considerable study, TEF is supporting RFRA.

Homosexual agenda

• HB 909 by Coleman would deny employers the right to ask on a job application or in a job interview or even ask a former employer-about an applicant's sexual orientation. Even though churches would be exempted, this amounts to more government regulation of businesses. We oppose this bill.

• HB 1371 would increase a civil penalty to “not less than $5,000” as well as attorney fees and court costs for disclosing a person's HIV status. We oppose this bill.

Immunizations

• HB 1381 by Isett would eliminate the immunization registry maintained by the Texas Department of Health. We support this bill.

• HB 1347 by Green would allow exemptions from the immunization requirements for students and children. We support this bill.

On a lighter note (a "pork" bill?)

• HB 1389 would create an offense if a person causes a dog to fight a hog or allows real estate for the purpose of the fight or attends as a spectator. The serious part of this bill is to oppose animal cruelty which we support.