Health Policy and Legislative Affairs

With March now in the rear-view mirror, Dr. Ben Raimer reflects on both the UTMB School of Medicine and Galveston County chamber of commerce trips to Austin. Following this reflection he provides an update on priority legislation and related UTMB interests.

With several more weeks of the Texas Legislature’s 86th session behind us, Dr. Ben Raimer examines the effects of past legislative sessions on UTMB and how those effects gave rise to our requests this session. He also touches on the warm welcome UTMB received in Austin.

With the first couple of weeks of the Texas Legislature’s 86th session in the rear-view mirror, Dr. Ben Raimer provides insight on legislative personnel changes, the budget outlook and UTMB's budget requests. Get ready for another fantastic series of Ben's Blog posts in 2019!

Austin is back at it. The Texas Legislature gaveled into the first called special session at midday on Tuesday, July 18, to take up business that fell victim to the Mothers’ Day Massacre near the end of the 85th regular session.

Sine die—the last day of the regular session of the 85th Texas Legislature—arrived on Memorial Day, May 29. As we await word of a special session, I thought a review of where we’ve been and how our funding looks for the FY2018/2019 biennium would be helpful.

This week in Austin saw one of the most dramatic bill killings of all times. Pent up emotions found their way onto the House floor in what the media has termed the "Mother’s Day Massacre." The House Freedom Caucus, composed of very conservative members from north central Texas, used various parliamentary maneuvers Thursday evening and Friday to kill scores of bills.

Today (Thursday, May 11) is a magic day for this legislative session: when the clock strikes midnight tonight, the hundreds and hundreds of House bill that have made it through the laborious legislative process either live or die. If a bill has not cleared the hurdles of approval in the House by that time, it is dead. The only hope for resuscitation is to find a suitable bill that has cleared the House, and attach all or parts of the failed bill to the active bill as a floor amendment.