Welcome to our first installment of the SNJ Journal. Each month or so I’ll aim to bring you a glimpse of a few happenings in and around District 16 and the State Capitol, and a closer look at an interesting matter of public policy.
This first installment will be longer than the rest. To provide context, we need an 86,000-foot view of the 86th Legislature (i.e., this past legislative session). It was, to be sure, busy and productive. In committees and on the floor we analyzed, debated, revised, amended, voted, debated and amended again more than 7,000 bills; 1,326 of them became law.
The headline items were school finance and property tax. The Legislature passed major reforms to both, providing for increased school funding, lower property taxes, and slower future tax increases. These reforms mark great progress on the policy front, and a truly bipartisan achievement for legislators. But while a budget surplus enabled us to pull off this feat last session, budget surpluses aren’t built into the system, and in the next legislative session we’ll have to figure out how to fund these changes.
There’s much more, of course, and much depends on the much more. We addressed highways and trains; mental health and supportive palliative care; deer tags, oyster beds, aquifers, and dams; surprise medical billing, telemedicine, and efficiencies in health care systems; ranches and pipelines; crime and justice; scooters, taxis, and drones; hemp farms, wind farms, and chicken farms.
It is now the interim between sessions. My team and I are working without pause on matters large and small, general and specific, that affect the people and businesses in our senate district and throughout the state. I welcome your input, and look forward to working with you to serve the interests of Senate District 16 and the state of Texas.
Of Note:
- Everyone says I have an amazing staff. It’s true. Have an idea, a matter of concern, or just a question? Let us know how we can help. At the district office in Dallas, District Director Ashley McConkey and Constituent Liaison Rose Kimball ensure that we are engaged with and responsive to our community; at the Capitol in Austin General Counsel and Legislative Director Rudy England and Policy Analysts Jack Andrews and Lani Lappinga continue their exceptional work with constituents and policy leaders from around the state, while our Office Manager and Scheduler Cynthia Valadez-Mata keeps us all organized. Chief-of-Staff Deisy Jaimes splits her time between Austin and Dallas, working (tirelessly) with everyone, on everything.
- In the months since the end of session, I have: held well over 100 meetings with individual constituents, public interest organizations, and business leaders; served as a speaker at around 40 events; performed one ceremonial coin toss at a high school football game; and read “There is a Bird on Your Head” to a dual-language kindergarten class.
- Texas is facing a healthcare crisis, and I am committed to solving the problems we face. I am working to develop and promote innovative ways to improve public health, to expand access to healthcare, and raise the quality while lowering the costs of healthcare in Texas. I have appeared by invitation to speak at numerous conferences and forums, including the Texas Association of Health Plans, the Healthier Texas Summit, the North Texas Commission, The Dallas Regional Chamber, the Texas Healthcare and Biosciences Institute, and the Axxess Healthcare Leaders Forum.
If you’d like to receive an invitation to a Town Hall in 2020, please let me know here, and we’ll be sure to send you one.
Policy Spotlight: Reverse the Surge in Youth Vaping
Each issue will include a closer look at a single issue or event, to give you a look at how the legislative process relates to what’s happening in Texas.
Teen use of e-cigarettes almost doubled in the past year. It’s an epidemic, and a dangerous one. Even if you’re skeptical about the potential dangers, perhaps we can agree that getting kids addicted to nicotine by enticing them to suck fun-flavored mist from a pipe (a/k/a “vaping”) is a bad idea.
In an important move to combat youth smoking and vaping, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 21 (which I joint-authored), increasing the legal purchase age for tobacco and vapor products from 18 to 21 years. But SB 21 lacked enforcement mechanisms with respect to vaping. To fill the void, I advanced legislation to regulate vaping products more like we regulate smoking products, allowing the state to revoke sales permits from shops that illegally sell to minors. The bill had extensive bipartisan support, but an opponent killed it using a House procedural tactic. We’ll bring it back next session, only better.
Special Thanks
It rained hard shortly before sunrise, but by race time a light wind and mist kept more than 20,000 runners and walkers just cool (okay, cold) enough to appreciate all the more the comforts – to follow later in the day – of good food, family, and indoor heating. Great thanks is owed to the amazing team of organizers who worked for months, and to the hundreds of volunteers who rose in the middle of the night and braved the weather on Thanksgiving Day, for another brilliantly executed Dallas YMCA Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot – one of the largest races in the United States.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve you and our community. Please contact my Capitol Office at 512-462-0116 or our District Office at 214-750-2913 anytime if you have any questions or concerns.
