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ARCHIVE
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Issue 8
May 4, 2007
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Issue 8
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April 27, 2007
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April 20, 2007
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Issue 5
April 13, 2007
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Issue 4
April 5, 2007
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Issue 3
March 30, 2007
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Issue 2
March 23, 2007
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Issue 1
March 9, 2007
Vol. 2007
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This Week in Austin
As you may have read in the paper this week, the House continues to have a conflict with its leadership. As a result, actions in the House have been difficult to predict. While the clock quickly winds down on the 80th Legislative Session, hundreds of bills await action, and both the House and the Senate now are approaching a 24/7 schedule.
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Appropriations
 The Conference Committee continued meeting in small, informal groups this week. By early next week, we should know more about their thoughts on our allocation. To stay within the rules of the House and Senate, the Conference Committee should have the appropriations bill finalized by Thursday of next week.
The Committee’s final determination on group health insurance and nursing initiatives is critically important to DCCCD. Related to the nursing issue…we provided talking points to our area hospital administrators so that they could help us spread our message in Austin, which is part of our ongoing efforts to extend DCCCD’s advocacy efforts.
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Committee Meetings
 Philip Todd, DCCCD’s purchasing director, appeared on Monday before the Senate Government Organization Committee on HB 447. This bill focuses on contracts by governmental entities and related professional services and on public works performance and payment bonds. We have worked to ensure that provisions of this bill mesh with those in SB 1064, our purchasing bill. [Read HB 447]
Also on Monday, the Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education considered a number of nursing-related bills, including:
- SB 138, which addresses promoting the retention and graduation of students enrolled in professional nursing programs;
- SB 139, which would provide a study about improving the curricula of professional and vocational nursing education programs;
- SB 141, which relates to a feasibility study regarding joint health science courses at public or private colleges and universities;
- SB 201, which would provide tuition exemptions at public colleges and universities for certain professional nursing program preceptors and their children; and
- SB 249, which relates to the use of professional nursing shortage reduction program grants to encourage clinical nursing instruction by part-time faculty at colleges and universities.
Although each of these bills may provide some benefits to nursing programs, they do not include the required funding. You can view details about each of these bills on our Web site.
This week, SB 49, one of the “tax-free” textbook bills, was passed by the Senate. The bill would specify a period of time during which students could buy textbooks tax-free. A number of textbook-related bills have been considered during this session, but this is probably one of the few that will survive. [Read SB 49]
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Legislation
Legislators continue to try to prioritize bills that will move forward and survive this session. Many bills of interest to us await action. In most cases, this situation is positive for DCCCD.
SB 1064, the community college purchasing bill which was passed by the Senate, is scheduled to be heard by the House Higher Education Committee next week. Once it passes the committee, little time will remain for this bill to be considered by the full House. DCCCD staff members have worked on SB 1064 for several years now, and we will continue to do so until the end of this session.
To determine the status of bills that you may be interested in, view our updated tracking list.
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