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82nd Legislative Session

The latest 82nd Legislative Session news from The Texas Tribune.

  • Are Payment Reform, Texas Budget In Conflict?

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Lawmakers are crafting legislation to make health care more affordable and effective by rewarding doctors who get the best medical outcomes. But the cuts they're proposing to meet the state's budget shortfall could hinder some of the same physicians they're relying on to implement payment reform. Full Story 

    Odiel Rodriguez, a physician assistant, checks a patient's file at Ashley Pediatrics Day and Night Clinic in Pharr. Family practitioners fear what budget cuts will mean for the funding that keeps them in business.
    Credit: Callie Richmond

  • David Dewhurst: The TT Interview

    By Emily Ramshaw

    The lieutenant governor believes he knows how to save Texas money and improve patient care by overhauling how doctors and hospitals are paid: with carrots, not sticks. In an interview with the Tribune, he talks about what he sees as the root of the health care crisis, and his proposed solutions. Full Story 

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    Credit: Caleb Bryant Miller

  • Few Obstacles Face Voter ID in the Legislature

    By Ross Ramsey

    Both sides cite stats and research papers to support their positions, with Democrats saying the photo voter ID law will suppress minority voting, and Republicans saying it won't do anything but stop fraud. Whatever it is, it's on its way into the law books. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Disputed Howard-Neil Contest Goes to the House

    By Ross Ramsey

    Travis County Republican Dan Neil lost his first race for elective office in November by just 12 votes. Now he's asking the Texas House of Representatives to declare some of the voters in that election ineligible and to put him in first place and state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, in second. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Red Meat, Fast Track

    By Ross Ramsey

    Abortion politics is back on center stage, with Gov. Rick Perry putting it, voter photo ID, state support for a balanced federal budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution, eminent domain and a ban on sanctuary cities at the top of his list of priorities. Why? Full Story 

    Gov. Rick Perry as the keynote speaker at The Annual Texas Rally for Life at the Capitol on January 22, 2011.
    Credit: Caleb Bryant Miller

  • Health Reform Roulette

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Even as Texas pursues a lawsuit attacking federal health care reform, some state officials are reluctantly laying the groundwork to implement parts of the law. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Testing the Evidence

    By Brandi Grissom

    In police departments across Texas, tens of thousands of rape kits have been sitting on the shelves of property storage rooms for years — thanks to strained budgets, overworked crime labs and a law enforcement philosophy that such kits are primarily useful as evidence if a stranger committed the assault. Victims’ rights advocates and some lawmakers say they'll work to pass legislation this year to take that evidence out of storage and create a DNA database that would help track rapists and perhaps even identify those who have been wrongly convicted. "I think we owe it to every person who has been raped," says state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth. Full Story 

    A sexual assault evidence collection kit
    Credit: Todd Wiseman

  • Controversial? Just Wait

    By Julián Aguilar

    The voter ID legislation passed by the Texas Senate on Wednesday night may be controversial, but it’s a familiar debate, as is the issue of “sanctuary cities.” Less well known but no less controversial are many of the provisions found in more than three dozen immigration-related bills filed so far. Some Hispanic Republicans in the Texas House say they are not going to support bills they believe are too extreme. Full Story 

    Protesters hold signs reading "No Arizona Hate in Texas" — a reference to a recently passed law in that state — during a 2011 demonstration against "sanctuary city" legislation in Austin.
    Credit: Todd Wiseman

  • John Zerwas: The TT Interview

    By Emily Ramshaw

    The state representative and anesthesiologist from Simonton on why he filed the House's first bill to implement a key piece of federal health-care reform and was the first in his party to openly suggest that dropping out of Medicaid wasn't such a great idea after all. Full Story 

    State Rep. John Zerwas, R-Simonton
    Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera

  • The Pre-K Predicament

    By Morgan Smith

    Just how important is full-day pre-kindergarten for the state’s youngest and most disadvantaged kids? Is it more important than after-school tutoring? Than canceling music and art classes? As public school officials brace for a proposed $10 billion less in state funding, that’s one decision they'll have to make. “It's choosing between bad and worse and bad and bad,” says one superintendent. “It's definitely not a good day when we are sitting around talking about whether class size going up could help salvage all-day pre-K, or vice-versa.” Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Keeping the Faith

    By Christopher Smith Gonzalez

    Like many other Texas groups, faith organizations that lobby lawmakers are bracing for a brutal budgetary session. It’s not only a moral issue for the religious groups; it concerns their own bottom lines, too. Because when the government doesn’t provide for the needy, the needy look to the church. Full Story 

    Imam Islam Mossad of the North Austin Muslim Community Center recites the Islamic call to prayer to start Texas Impact's interfaith prayer service on the capitol steps on the first day of session. Members of Christian, Muslim and Jewish faith traditions gathered to pray for legislators and to ask that they act as responsible shepherds for the people of Texas.
    Credit: Todd Wiseman

  • Texplainer: Is It Raining Yet?

    By Christopher Smith Gonzalez

    The Texas Constitution says that money from the Rainy Day Fund can be spent to “prevent or eliminate a temporary cash deficiency in general revenue.” With the state facing a budget shortfall estimated somewhere between $15 billion and $27 billion, some say if it ain't raining now, it ain't ever going to. Full Story 

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  • Managed Into the Red?

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Texas hospital administrators aren't thrilled about the 10 percent Medicaid provider rate cut included in the House's proposed budget. But what they fear more is the proposed expansion of Medicaid managed care, which could force them to forgo a combined $1 billion a year in federal funding. Full Story 

    Dr. Carlos Cardenas, chairman of the board at Doctor’s Hospital at Renaissance in Edinburg, performs an exam on a patient on Wednesday December 8, 2010. Many Texas hospitals like this one oppose certain aspects of the proposed expansion of Medicaid managed care.
    Credit: Gabe Hernandez