A program created this year will help pay mental health professionals’ student loans if they practice in a medically needy area. The program seeks to alleviate the state’s shortage of mental health professionals, which watchdogs are calling a “public health emergency.”
Charles Schwertner
Posted in
Higher Education
Hopes Fading for New Limits for Tuition Growth
With the death of all legislation specifically aiming to re-regulate tuition costs at Texas’ public universities, proponents of the idea see few avenues for implementing the idea this year.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
E-Verify Bill One Step Closer to Abbott’s Desk
The Texas House on Monday gave tentative approval to a bill that would require state agencies and public universities to use the federal electronic employment system called E-Verify.
Posted in
Health care
Funding Program Shields Nursing Homes From Lawsuits
Hundreds of Texas nursing homes have transferred their ownership to local government entities in order to secure more federal Medicaid funding. Critics of the arrangement say it shields negligent nursing homes from lawsuits.
Posted in
Health care
More Pay for Medicaid Doctors Lost in Budget Deal
The House-Senate budget conference committee adopted its compromise on health and human services funding Wednesday, pleasing fiscal conservatives and giving little cheer to advocates for the poor and disabled.
Posted in
Transportation
House, Senate at Odds Over Provision That Would Block Bullet Train
House and Senate leaders are in the midst of intense negotiations over a budget rider that could kill a proposed $12 billion bullet train project connecting Dallas and Houston.
Posted inState Government
The Brief: May 20, 2015
House and Senate negotiators are down to one final challenge: working out the timing on their complicated tax cut dance.
Posted in
Health care
Video: Health Care and the 84th Legislative Session
At our 5/4 symposium on health care, state Rep. Myra Crownover, R-Denton, the chairman of the House Public Health Committee, and state Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, the chairman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, talked about how the issue is playing out in the 84th session.
Posted in
State Government
Senate Announces Budget Negotiation Team
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has named the Senate lineup of budget negotiators who will meet with House counterparts and hash out a final version of the two-year state budget.
Posted in
Politics
Contracting Overhaul Sails Through Senate
Amid an ongoing scandal over how the state awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to a private company, the Texas Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved a bill that would overhaul the state’s contracting processes.