A brief description about your website. http://www.uwtexas.org/ Copyright 2008 - United Ways of Texas. Stephanie Guidry - May 27,2009 - 11:40 PMUWT is happy to report that House Bill 130, our #1 priority legislation this session, just passed the Senate Chamber with a 26 votes in favor of the bill. This favorable vote undoubtedly is the result of the tireless efforts of numerous individuals, including United Way and early childhood education advocates. Congrats and a big thank you goes out to all who contributed to the success of this bill thus far!The next major step for the bill is to get a signature on it from Governor Rick Perry. We will be in touch soon for how you can assist with this effort. Until then, thanks again for all of your hard work! http://www.uwtexas.org/uwt-capitol-blog/?aid=45 Wed, 27 May 2009 23:51:45 -0500 http://www.uwtexas.org/uwt-capitol-blog/?aid=45 Stephanie Guidry - May 8, 2009 - 3:40 PMAs you may know, the percentage of the aging population is projected to increase dramatically in coming years as the Baby Boomer cohort ages. UWT has been working diligently this session to ensure that Texas is prepared for this change in the population; in fact, two bills in the legislature would help to proactively handle this population shift. The first bill, HB 610 and it’s companion on the Senate side SB 1230, establishes the Legislative Committee on Aging to study issues relating to the aging population, receive information about proposed or adopted rules relating to the aging population, and submit a report to the legislature with recommendations before each legislative session. The bill also establishes the Chris Kyker Endowment for Seniors Fund to finance a contract between HHSC and an entity to study aging-related issues and develop and recommend solutions to those problems. Our president-elect of the UWT board, Jim Hine, has been working especially hard with help from UWT President and CEO Karen Johnson to pass this important legislation and illuminate how important senior issues are, especially in the light of the rapidly increasing number of aging Texans. We are excited to report that this legislation is moving right along and we hope that it will pass successfully.The second piece of innovative legislation is HB 4145, authored by Representative Patrick Rose. The bill would establish pilot programs through Health and Human Services to determine if a volunteer advocate program for the elderly would be good for Texas without duplicating existing services. The bill is also making considerable progress through the legislative process. UWT will update you about this and other important legislation related to aging as we move forward into the remainder of the session. http://www.uwtexas.org/uwt-capitol-blog/?aid=44 Fri, 08 May 2009 15:39:22 -0500 http://www.uwtexas.org/uwt-capitol-blog/?aid=44 Stephanie Guidry - May 7, 2009 - After discussion on the floor,House Bill 130 just passed a vote on the House floor with the following vote: 109 For32 Against1 Absent/No VoteOn to the Senate side we go! http://www.uwtexas.org/uwt-capitol-blog/?aid=43 Thu, 07 May 2009 16:19:42 -0500 http://www.uwtexas.org/uwt-capitol-blog/?aid=43 Stephanie Guidry - May 7, 2009 - 3:08 PMHB 130 is being heard on the House floor as we speak! You can tune in from your computer by clicking here. http://www.uwtexas.org/uwt-capitol-blog/?aid=42 Thu, 07 May 2009 15:11:07 -0500 http://www.uwtexas.org/uwt-capitol-blog/?aid=42 Stephanie Guidry - May 4, 2009 - 2:30 PMOver the weekend, legislators took an important step towards ensuring that Texas' littlest learners have access to high quality, full-day pre-k programs: House Bill 130 was placed on the General State Calendar. Essentially this action means that the bill, UWT's #1 priority legislation this session, could be up for discussion and a vote on the House floor as early as today.UWT needs your help to make sure that the bill is heard as quickly as possible. We're asking you to contact your elected Representative TODAY and voice your support for HB 130 and the sound investment of high quality pre-k. The more legislators hear from constituents, the better chance the bill has for being voted out of the House quickly. UWT has even made it easy for you by creating a Take Action webpage - just click on the link below and send off your e-mail. Take Action! E-mail your Representative by clicking here. If you'd like to monitor the action on the House floor this week, you can do so by clicking on the following link for a live video feed: http://www.house.state.tx.us/media/welcome.php. Of course, UWT will keep you updated via our blog about the latest related to HB 130. http://www.uwtexas.org/uwt-capitol-blog/?aid=41 Mon, 04 May 2009 14:29:03 -0500 http://www.uwtexas.org/uwt-capitol-blog/?aid=41 Stephanie Guidry - April 30, 2009 - 5:00 PMDuring this legislative session, there have been a few very unique bits of legislation that catch my eye. The most recent? An amendment to a bill that prohibits school districts from regulating the hair length of honor students who have no disciplinary record or unexcused absences. I can't help but have the mental image a smart, upstanding 15 year-old sophomore...with a mullet.In all seriousness, this amendment was added to House Bill 3, a bill intended to reform the school accountability system in Texas. In layman's terms, the bill will take some of the pressure off of the earlier standards of accountability (elementary and middle school TAKS) and place more stringent standards on high school performance measures (Algebra II and English III scores). On the Senate side, an almost identical Senate Bill 3 recently unanimously passed 31-0. Have a look at yesterday's Dallas Morning News article for additional commentary about the bill. http://www.uwtexas.org/uwt-capitol-blog/?aid=40 Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:52:39 -0500 http://www.uwtexas.org/uwt-capitol-blog/?aid=40 Stephanie Guidry - April 27, 2009 - 5:00 PMIn case you hadn't heard, a new act was signed into law last Tuesday: the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act (HR 1388). The Serve America Act calls for the largest investment of federal dollars into national service programs since the Great Depression. The act will provide funding to triple the amount of individuals who can take part in national service in programs such as Americorps and Peace Corps. This new investment could prove to be very significant for nonprofit organizations since the legislation also establishes a "Nonprofit Capacity Building Program". The program is slated to provide grants to intermediary organizations to fund capacity building work for small to mid-sized nonprofit organizations. To read a summary of the program, click here. For more information about the Serve America Act, you can also take a look here or read the full text of the act here (warning - the file size is pretty large and it might take a while to download). http://www.uwtexas.org/uwt-capitol-blog/?aid=39 Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:00:08 -0500 http://www.uwtexas.org/uwt-capitol-blog/?aid=39 Jason Sabo - April 16, 2009 - 1:25 PMSome great media coverage of UWT's pending priority pre-kindergarten legislation this week. First, the Dallas Morning News ran a terrific editorial yesterday about the need to get HB 130 voted out of the House Public Education Committee. Texas Monthly's website chimed in just today with a similar call on the Committee to approve the bill ASAP. Ninety-four co-authors, the support of the business community, a united early childhood education movement - I agree with the growing call from across Texas: it's past time to pass HB 130 from the House Public Education Committee and get it to the House floor for full debate. http://www.uwtexas.org/uwt-capitol-blog/?aid=38 Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:24:23 -0500 http://www.uwtexas.org/uwt-capitol-blog/?aid=38 Stephanie Guidry - April 15, 2009 - 10:23 AMToday is a day that holds special significance for many Americans - it's tax day. After we have mailed in our tax forms by April 15th (hopefully) and they are processed, where exactly do Americans' tax dollars go?The folks at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) have created an interesting online resource outlining exactly that, titled "Where Do Our Federal Tax Dollars Go". The CBPP's resource talks about the ways that tax dollars are used, and from education to defense and everything in between. For the visual learners out there, the resource also has helpful pie charts displaying the break down of federal tax dollar spending.I encourage you to have a look at this handy resource and see what happens to tax dollars after April 15th! http://www.uwtexas.org/uwt-capitol-blog/?aid=37 Wed, 15 Apr 2009 10:23:21 -0500 http://www.uwtexas.org/uwt-capitol-blog/?aid=37 Bethany Fleming - April 14, 2009 - 4:55 PMAs “the intern” at UWT since January of this year, I have had the privilege of attending quite a few committee hearings and briefings in which I had absolutely no idea what was going on. Don’t worry, I’m a competent person, and my three years at UT have fully versed me in note-taking, so what I usually come out of the meetings with is an accurate, better understanding of the subject matter. But today, I faced a new challenge altogether… This morning, the Legislative Budget Board made a presentation, briefing House members on the details of the proposed budget. And, quite honestly, I ended up being confounded by the entire proceeding. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t expect a budget proceeding to be simple, but as I stated before, I’m usually able to at least keep up! Besides my initial shock at the meeting's low attendance (things must have been considerably busy at the Capitol today), I was struck by the added complexity of figuring the Federal Stimulus dollars into Texas’ proposed expenditures. Nearly every question posed by the legislators dealt with why, how, and how much federal money was being funneled into what program. The main point I came away from the briefing with was that the usage of federal funds in lieu of general revenue funds will free up these general revenue funds to take care of projected over-expenditures. Good news right? Well, maybe. The question still lingering with me is what will happen when we are using general revenue funds to take care of new “over-expenditures” and we use up all of the federal funds? Won’t we have to choose between cutting funds to other, older programs, and cutting funding to new programs? They announced at the end of the meeting that LBB representatives will be available to members for questions on Thursday and Friday, and I sincerely hope legislators and their staff take advantage of this resource. No doubt, budget matters are tedious, boring and complex; but because of this, they require ample, if not more than usual, attention to comprehend (believe me, I’ve tried!). http://www.uwtexas.org/uwt-capitol-blog/?aid=36 Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:50:18 -0500 http://www.uwtexas.org/uwt-capitol-blog/?aid=36