Texas Eagle Forum
State Legislative Alert #5 (March 17, 1999)
by Cathie Adams, president, cathieadams@texaseagle.org
STATE BILLS IN THIS ISSUE:

Legislative Handbook

E-mail your request for a copy of our Texas Legislative Handbook and send $5 by snail mail to PO Box 795354, Dallas, TX 75379.

Contact your State Legislator

Capitol switchboard: 512-463-4630

Legislator’s e-mail:

    House member: firstname.lastname@house.state.tx.us
    Senate member: firstname.lastname@senate.state.tx.us

STATE BILLS:

The Texas Legislators’ bill filing deadline was Friday, March 12. There were 655 bills filed on Thursday and 906 filed on Friday. Reading them has been like drinking from a fire hose!

 Abortion
HB 5 is a PHONY parental notification bill filed by Rep. Patricia Gray, D-Galveston. While the genuine parental notification bill, SB 30, provides for a judicial bypass, this PHONY bill adds a bypass from a licensed mental health professional who could determine it “would not be in the best interests of the minor” or that “the minor is mature and capable of giving informed consent to an abortion.” TEF opposes this PHONY bill.

 School-based Sex Clinics
SB 1454 by Royce West, D-Dallas would establish school-based sex clinics to provide “mental health care, physical health care, family and home support, health education and social services.” This bill would create a socialized medical system in the heart of each community on the school campuses funded by taxpayers through schemes including Medicaid. When I visited a “clinic” on a Dallas high school campus several years ago, I was told that the majority of services it provided was sexually related, treating sexually transmitted diseases, prescribing birth control, and providing pre- and post-natal care. TEF opposes school-based sex clinics.

 Needle Exchange
HB 2393 by Glen Maxey, D-Austin would force taxpayers to become enablers of drug abuse by providing needles, syringes, bleach and sterile cotton to “harm reduction programs” via licensed wholesale drug distributors. TEF opposes enabling drug addicts.

 Divorce
HB 2442 by Toby Goodman, R-Arlington (a divorce attorney and chairman of the committee hearing this bill) and SB 1162 by Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio would mandate premarital education for persons applying for a marriage license. TEF is concerned that if the State dictates premarital counseling, then the State will dictate the content of even church counseling. TEF opposes State control of pastoral counseling.

 Multicultural Mathematics and Science
HB 3109 by John Longoria, D-San Antonio would establish multicultural math and science education cooperative for teachers and principals of “educationally disadvantaged students.” TEF opposes politically correct/multicultural fads in the classroom. ALL children deserve an excellent academic education regardless of race or gender.

 ALERT ALERT ALERT!!!
Texas Eagle Pat Carlson has been monitoring the House Appropriations Committee in Austin. The nearly $40 billion Texas budget is overwhelming, but she has focused on funding for a privacy invasive program called Healthy Start/Healthy Families.

Sold as a child abuse prevention program, Healthy Start/Healthy Families allows social workers from the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services (DPRS), better known as Child Protective Services, to monitor families with newborns via in-home visits until the child is five years old. Legislation to create the bureaucracy was defeated in 1995, regardless, $3.1 million was dedicated to the program in 1997. Now, the DPRS is asking for another $1.8 million in order to add ten new programs to the existing 16.

The Appropriations’ Health and Human Services sub-committee has not recommended continued funding for the program. However, there is a possibility that its funding will be discussed before the whole committee on Monday, March 22nd.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Please call (512-463-4630) or e-mail the Appropriations Committee members and ask them to deny funding to the Healthy Families program.