While members of the Texas Legislature can no longer act as lobbyists before state agencies, plenty of lawmakers still manage to lobby local governments. Others find work that critics would classify as lobbying by another name.
Garnet Coleman
Posted inState Government
TribLive: The Future of Medicare
Full video of my Monday conversation about the future of Medicare with state Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, Anne Dunkelberg of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis and Leo Linbeck III of the Health Care Compact Alliance.
Posted in
Health care
Texas Democrats Defend Federal Health Reform
Texas has already joined the two-dozen other states challenging the constitutionality of federal health care reform before the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, 27 Democratic state lawmakers have signed on to try to defend it.
Posted in
Health care
House Gives Early Nod to Health Care Compact
House lawmakers gave early approval to a bill designed to let Texas take control of Medicaid and Medicare from the federal government after a high-decibel argument between the measure’s Republican author and Democratic lawmakers.
Posted in
Health care
Kolkhorst Throws Herself a Life Raft on Heath Care Compact Bill
Rep. Lois Kolkhorst threw herself a life raft tonight, attaching her Health Care Compact bill — a measure that would seek to give Texas control of the purse strings for Medicare and Medicaid — onto a Senate health care bill that the House passed on third reading.
Posted in
State Government
Video: The Fight Over Family Planning
Budget negotiators will likely adopt the House’s 2012-13 family planning budget, or something close to it. The House proposed $37 million for family planning funding, while the Senate proposed $99 million.
Posted in
Health care
House Gives First OK to Medicaid Waiver Plan
House lawmakers have given an early okay to Rep. Lois Kolkhorst’s bill to ask Washington for a block grant to run Medicaid — the joint state-federal health care program for children, the disabled and the very poor — as Texas sees fit.
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State Government
In Rare Moment, GOP House Members Applaud Obama
For a rare moment, Republicans in the lower chamber set aside their anti-Washington rhetoric and joined their Democratic colleagues to congratulate President Barack Obama for ordering the military action that led to the death of Osama bin Laden.
Posted in
State Government
House Tentatively Passes TEXAS Grants Bill
The House tentatively passed a bill to provide students who have demonstrated college readiness with priority access to TEXAS Grants, the state’s primary need-based financial aid program.
Posted in
Health care
From Texas to D.C., Debate Over Medicaid Funding Rages
If congressional Republicans’ proposed solution to cutting health care costs — giving states block grants to fund Medicaid — sounds familiar, it’s because it is.
