February 23, 2017 - This week, the House Appropriations Committee began the long process of producing a budget that will fund our state government for the next two years. You may have heard about changes in the budget, be it increases or reductions, that give you concern or that you agree with. The budgets that you have heard about are the base budgets, which are the starting point for each house as the develop a budget that reflects its priorities.
The budgeting process is a complicated and arduous process in which both the House and the Senate debate and pass a budget and then reconcile the differences between the two budgets to arrive at the final budget. This process takes countless hours between and routinely leads to debates that last into the wee hours of the morning. I can assure you that the House is dedicated to passing a conservative budget which funds the priorities of the state. I look forward to working with the East Texas delegation to make sure that East Texas is represented in the budgeting process.
This week, I also co-authored some legislation that I hope to see become law this session. Some of the bills that I co-authored are:
- HB 844 would ban dismemberment abortions. As the name suggests, this is a horrific form of abortion and Texas must act to protect unborn children from these gruesome procedures. I am certain that the Texas House will act to protect life.
- HB 1390 would end the small school penalty that harms many of our rural school districts. This policy was enacted decades ago to force rural school districts to consolidate. While it made sense for some districts to consolidate, the policy remains and harms many of our rural school districts that did not find a benefit in consolidation. I look forward to ending this policy that is harmful to our rural schools.
- HB 1774 would help end lawsuit abuse found in areas that have experienced hail storms. This bill will help keep insurance rates low while also keeping important consumer protections when there are problems with an insurance company.
As always, if you have ideas for legislation or an issue that you want me to know about, please contact me at 512-463-0556 or district9.paddie@house.texas.gov.
