The latest Charles Schwertner news from The Texas Tribune.
A program created this year will help pay mental health professionals’ student loans if they practice in a medically needy area. The program seeks to alleviate the state’s shortage of mental health professionals, which watchdogs are calling a "public health emergency." Full Story
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With the death of all legislation specifically aiming to re-regulate tuition costs at Texas' public universities, proponents of the idea see few avenues for implementing the idea this year. Full Story
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The Texas House on Monday gave tentative approval to a bill that would require state agencies and public universities to use the federal electronic employment system called E-Verify. Full Story
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Hundreds of Texas nursing homes have transferred their ownership to local government entities in order to secure more federal Medicaid funding. Critics of the arrangement say it shields negligent nursing homes from lawsuits. Full Story
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The House-Senate budget conference committee adopted its compromise on health and human services funding Wednesday, pleasing fiscal conservatives and giving little cheer to advocates for the poor and disabled. Full Story
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House and Senate leaders are in the midst of intense negotiations over a budget rider that could kill a proposed $12 billion bullet train project connecting Dallas and Houston. Full Story
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House and Senate negotiators are down to one final challenge: working out the timing on their complicated tax cut dance. Full Story
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At our 5/4 symposium on health care, state Rep. Myra Crownover, R-Denton, the chairman of the House Public Health Committee, and state Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, the chairman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, talked about how the issue is playing out in the 84th session. Full Story
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Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has named the Senate lineup of budget negotiators who will meet with House counterparts and hash out a final version of the two-year state budget. Full Story
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Amid an ongoing scandal over how the state awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to a private company, the Texas Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved a bill that would overhaul the state’s contracting processes. Full Story
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The Texas Senate on Wednesday approved Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s multibillion-dollar tax relief package to cut property and business margins taxes, tossing the ball into the House's court. Full Story
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GOP budget writers had help closing the books on the Medicaid program for the current fiscal year with help from an unlikely source — the Affordable Care Act. Full Story
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Leading Texas Republicans on Monday asked the Obama administration for greater flexibility to administer Medicaid — a move that has gotten little traction in the past — while reiterating that they would not participate in an expansion of the program under the Affordable Care Act. Full Story
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The Tribune's Jay Root and Neena Satija filed a story over the weekend on the problem of deferred maintenance at state government buildings in multiple agencies. It makes for some grim reading. Full Story
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A reinvented Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas says its darkest hour has passed, but the agency faces new conservative lawmakers unconvinced more money should be devoted to the agency. Full Story
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Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has announced a slate of bills he says will provide lasting tax relief to businesses and homeowners in Texas — to the tune of $4.6 billion. But there are signs he could face some opposition within his own party. Full Story
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Senate budget writers on Wednesday lit into Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Kyle Janek, a former senator himself, in a hearing that concluded with another call for him to resign. Full Story
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In the Roundup: Lawmakers listen to hours of testimony on two pieces of gun legislation, toll bill snafus affect thousands of Texans, and a Senate bill would better prepare the state to handle infectious disease emergencies. Full Story
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The debate over the expansion of rights to carry guns onto university campuses and openly with a permit moves from rallies outside the Capitol to legislative hearings inside the building today. Full Story
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At the Senate Health and Human Services Committee's first meeting of the legislative session, Chairman Charles Schwertner shared some tough criticism of the Health and Human Services Commission's Office of Inspector General. Full Story
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