January 19, 2009
 

 
TOA President's Update: 81st Legislative Session Contacts
  

By Timothy L. Beck, MD
President, Texas Orthopaedic Association

It's that time again!  We will need your assistance during the 81st Texas legislative session. Please select one of the several key contact survey options that will help us know which Texas legislators YOU know. You may print out the section below and fax it back to the TOA staff at 866-864-1568 or you may click here to download, print out and fax back

the PDF file to the TOA staff or you may simply click here and fill out the Key Contact survey online. (Online password is 01-09-kcsurvey)

 
Texas Orthopaedic Association Legislative Survey:
KEY CONTACTS

 

NAME:  _______________________________________________________
 
HOME ZIP+4:  _______________-________

We need your voting address (home address) if you don't know your nine-digit zip code. If you will provide us your home address, we will update our database which will match you to your District and let you know your representatives.

Name of your State Senator _____________________________________ Dist# _______

Name of your Representative_____________________________________ Dist# _______

(You can find the above information on the TOA website under the "My Account" menu - then by clicking on TX District Finder.)  Please note - information that may not be up to date nor 100% accurate if we do not have your home address plus your ZIP+4 - which you may update with the link provided either there or under "My Account" then "Update Your Information".
A key contact program is a successful method of keeping legislators informed of important TOA political issues. Do you know any Texas legislators (on the state or national level) personally?  Yes____ No____

I know Senator ______________________________well enough to contact personally.

_________ I contributed to his/her campaign
_________ I worked actively in his/her campaign
_________ I am his/her personal physician
_________ Other reasons you know this legislator…please explain:

____________________________________________________________________________
 
_________ I am willing to serve as a Key Contact for this legislator.

I know Representative _________________________well enough to contact personally.
_________ I contributed to his/her campaign
_________ I worked actively in his/her campaign
_________ I am his/her personal physician
_________ Other reasons you know this legislator…please explain:

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________
 
_________ I am willing to serve as a Key Contact for this legislator.

I don't know any Texas legislators but I would be willing to cultivate a relationship (i.e. letters, phone calls, etc.) Y _____ N _____
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Texas District by District: Lt. Governor David Dewhurst
     

Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst is a native Texan, proud veteran, successful businessman, and rancher. He serves as President of the Texas Senate and is proud of the broad support he has earned during his tenure.

Through three Regular Sessions and seven Special Sessions of the Legislature, Lt. Governor Dewhurst has worked to bring together Republicans and Democrats to pass legislation to create new jobs and economic opportunity, improve schools, and protect public safety. In

2007, Dewhurst led the effort to pass one of the toughest Jessica's Laws in the nation. The law, part of Dewhurst's Texas Children First initiative, imposes tough, new penalties against child predators, including life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A fiscal conservative, Dewhurst has worked to balance three budgets without increasing the tax burden on Texans. These conservative budgets have helped the state's economy grow faster than the national economy and create more than one million new jobs in Texas over the last five years.

Lt. Governor Dewhurst believes every child in Texas deserves a quality education. In 2006, as Dewhurst led the Senate to approve $14 billion in local school property tax cuts, he fought successfully to raise teacher salaries and educational standards, increase accountability, and reduce drop-out rates. To make university study affordable, Dewhurst worked to pass the "B-on-Time Loan Program," which provides college students with zero-interest, forgivable loans if they graduate on time with at least a "B" average.

The Dallas Morning News called Dewhurst's first term leading the Senate "a demonstration of steadiness, resolve and consensus building." The Houston Chronicle has called Dewhurst "an exceptional leader."

As Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office, where he served from 1999-2002, Dewhurst reduced the workforce and budget, and turned back money each of two biennia to Texas' taxpayers. He certified almost $1 billion in below-market interest rate loans to veterans to honor their service and to stimulate the Texas economy, and helped protect the environment and increase tourism by restoring Texas' beaches and bays.

In the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks, Dewhurst was appointed by Governor Rick Perry as Chairman of the Governor's Task Force on Homeland Security.

Dewhurst began his business career in the mid-1970s after serving as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the U.S. State Department. He founded Falcon Seaboard, a Texas-based diversified energy and investments company. An early developer in the mid-1980s in the electric cogeneration business, he has earned a reputation as an innovative and successful businessman.

Dewhurst has been a long time community and civic leader in his hometown of Houston, where he has served on civic and charitable boards. Dewhurst, who speaks Spanish, earned his BA degree from the University of Arizona, where he played college basketball. He breeds and raises registered Black Angus cattle, and he rides cutting horses in National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) and American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) competitions. Dewhurst is honorary Vice President of the AQHA.

 

We are honored that Lt. Governor Dewhurst is participating in the TOA/TOF Get Active! Texas program. The PSAs listed below will be sent to Texas Media this week. You should be able to hear the Lt. Governor’s Get Active! Texas public service announcement by clicking on the PSA link to the Texas Orthopaedic Association website.

 

Get Active! Texas PSAs
(to save to your computer, right click on link and select "Save target as")
 Get Active! Texas PSA 1: 30 seconds - Final
Get Active! Texas PSA 2: 30 seconds - Final
Get Active! Texas PSA 1: 30 seconds - No Tag
Get Active! Texas PSA 2: 30 seconds - No Tag
 

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This Week In Texas: Mignon McGarry Memos

By Mignon McGarry
TOA Legislative Advocate
TOA Online Version: All Memos

 

January 14, 2009, Wednesday

The 81st Regular Session of the Texas Legislature is underway.  Both the House and Senate began floor sessions at Noon yesterday.  Since

the battle for House Speaker was pretty much decided last week, there were no fireworks on the House floor.  Rep. Joe Straus (R-San Antonio) was elected as the next Speaker by a unanimous vote.  San Antonio played a prominent role in opening day festivities as Secretary of State Hope Andrade presided over the House chamber prior to Straus' election as speaker and Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson administered the oath of office for the new Speaker.

Over in the Senate, Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Ft. Worth) and Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Houston) joined the 29 incumbent Senators to begin the session.  The Senate elected Sen. Robert Duncan (R-Lubbock) as the President Pro Tempore.  This puts Duncan third in line for the Governorship, and he will serve in that capacity whenever both the Governor and Lt. Governor are absent from the state.

On Monday, Comptroller Susan Combs released her biennial revenue estimate.  For the 2010-2011 biennium, the state can expect to have $77.1 billion in funds available for general purpose spending.  This is a 10.5 percent decrease or $9.1 billion less than the $86.2 billion available during the last biennium.  Expect to see a lot of debate on the possible use of funds currently in the Economic Stabilization Fund, commonly referred to as the Rainy Day Fund.  That fund currently holds $9.1 billion in available funds.
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Texas Legislature Online: Bill Search & Frequently Asked Questions
 

You may gain access to the Texas Legislature Online by visiting the TOA website and selecting "TX Legislature" under the Legislative menu or by going directly to their website (http://www.legis.state.tx.us/).

Once there, this is a quick "how to" on how you can Search Legislation by Word/Phrase or Bill Number. First under the "Search Legislation" area, highlight the legislative session to be searched. (Legislature 81(R)-2009

is the default). Select the radio button for the type of search to perform.

Word/Phrase - searches the text of bills for the chosen legislative session based on the entered word or phrase.

Bill Number - displays the bill history (status of bill, author information, actions applied, etc.) for the entered bill.

If you are performing a word/phrase search, enter the text of the word or phrase into the input field. If you are performing a bill number search, enter the bill number into the input field.

The syntax for the bill number should be:
CHAMBER BILL TYPE BILL SUFFIX

CHAMBER = H (House) or S (Senate)
BILL TYPE = B (Bill), R (Resolution), JR (Joint Resolution), CR (Concurrent Resolution)
BILL SUFFIX = Up to 5-digit number

Description Value Entered
House bill 14
House joint resolution 14
House resolution 14
House concurrent resolution 14
Senate bill 14
Senate joint resolution 14
Senate resolution 14
Senate concurrent resolution 14		 HB 14
HJR 14
HR 14
HCR 14
SB 14
SJR 14
SR 14
SCR 14

 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE TLO WEBSITE

1.  How do I determine my district and legislator?
Use the Who Represents Me? system on the TLO website. You can enter your ZIP code, city, or street address to find your legislator and district.

2.  How do I send e-mail to my representative or senator?
It is each legislator's prerogative to support feedback through e-mail. If a legislator chooses to do so, you can find an e-mail feedback form on the legislator's home page. You can find your representative on the house website and your senator on the senate website.

3.  How do I find out more about the Texas legislative process?
 Information on the legislative process (introduction of bills, calendars, committees) can be found on the legislative process page.

4.  How do I find out when a public hearing is being held?
 To find times and places for public hearings, view the committee schedule information available for house and senate committees.

5.  How do I follow the status of a bill?
 You can use TLO to follow a bill through the entire legislative process. View the page How to Follow a Bill Using TLO to gain information on features provided by the TLO website to follow a bill through the legislative process. This page includes information on how to find out when a bill will be discussed in committee, when a bill will be discussed on the floor, and how to find the current status for a bill.

6.  How do I view the text of a bill or lookup the status of a bill?
 You can view bills, fiscal notes, and bill analyses by selecting the bill lookup link on the Texas Legislature Online home page. You can also use this link to inquire about the status for a bill. You will be prompted to enter a bill number.

7.  How do I obtain a hard copy of a bill?
 The Texas Legislative Council House Document Distribution section distributes house documents and copies of general information and legislative reference publications to members of the legislature and to the general public.

House Document Distribution
Robert E. Johnson Building, Room B.324
1501 N Congress Ave
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 463-1144

E-mail: house.documentdistribution@tlc.state.tx.us

 

Senate Bill Distribution
Sam Houston Building, Room 190
201 E. 14th St.
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 463-0252

8.  What does the underlining and strikethrough in bill and amendment text mean?
 Underlined and strikethrough text indicate changes being made to the text of existing law or an existing constitutional provision. Underlined text is new language and strikethrough text indicates text being removed from existing law.

9.  Is there an FTP site available for downloading bills?
 Yes. The address is ftp.legis.state.tx.us. For downloading purposes, HTTP/FTP is supported on Internet Explorer (version 6 or higher), Firefox (version 3 or higher), and Safari. Firefox releases prior to version 3 do not support HTTP/FTP. The Firefox browser may require an add-on such as FireFTP. See the FTP site acceptable usage policy for more details.

10.  How do I obtain the conference committee report version of bill text?
 Changes to bill text made by a conference committee are included in the enrolled version of the bill text.

11.  How do I find out how a legislator voted on a bill?
 Bill vote information is available in the house or senate journal. The votes of individual representatives and senators are available only if (1) a record vote is requested at the time the vote takes place; or (2) when a record vote has not been taken within a specified time limit, a member registers a request to have his or her vote recorded in the journal. For help in finding vote information, view the page entitled Finding Vote Information.

12.  How current is the information on this site?
 Information updates occur immediately after the information is entered into the legislature's internal computer system.

13.  What are the hours of operation?
 Texas Legislature Online is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

14.  Is the system available when updates are being made?
 Updates to the TLO website do not require the system to be "unavailable." Occasional scheduled maintenance periods will require that the system be "unavailable." In such a case TLO will post a message on the home page.

15.  The information I need is not on the website. Where can I get help?
 The earliest bill text available on TLO is for the 73rd Legislature (1993). If you need access to earlier versions of text, you can view it onsite at the Legislative Reference Library (512) 463-1252.

16.  Can I obtain a copy of an entire code, such as the Education Code, through this system?
 The full text of all statutes is available on the TLO website. Every code is available in the Texas Statutes section.

17.  How do I register for an account so I may access the bill list and alert features?
 Go to the login page and use the new user page to create an account. You will be required to select a security question and provide an answer. The question and answer are used for purposes of providing you the ability to reset your password if necessary.

18.  I forgot my account password on the TLO website. How do I reset it?
 Go to the login page and use the reset password feature to reset your password. The web administrator does not have access to your password information.

19.  Can I track bills?
 Yes. This site provides two methods for creating a personal list of bills for tracking purposes. The bill list feature is accessible from the MyTLO page. A bill alert system allows bill tracking with the added capability of receiving notification when actions change.

20.  Can I be notified of changes made to the TLO site?
 You can be notified when changes have taken place on bills or when upcoming committee meetings, committee minutes, or calendars have been posted.

21.  How does the bill alert feature work?
 Bill alerts are available once you create an account on this website.  You will receive an e-mail if any bills on your list have had a change in action.

22.  How does the committee meeting, committees minutes, and calendar alerts feature work?
 The committee meeting notice, committee minutes, and calendar alerts feature are available once you create an account on this website. You will receive an e-mail alert as new meeting notices, minutes, or calendars are posted.

23.  Why am I having trouble selecting statute sections or displaying the text properly?
 You may be using a browser that does not support all of the features of this website. For optimal viewing of the site, we recommend using Internet Explorer (version 6 or above), Firefox, or Safari. Without one of the recommended browsers, some of this site's features may not be available.

25.  What is required for using the House current amendment feature?
 For optimal viewing of the House current amendment page, we recommend using Internet Explorer (version 6 or above), FireFox, or Safari (version 1.2 or above). These browsers support automatic updates of current amendment, current bill, and today's amendments pages as legislative activity takes place.

26.  How do I obtain a list of effective bills?
 A list of effective bills can be obtained through the following steps:

  1. Select the Reports link underneath Additional Searches from the home page.

  2. Select the General Reports tab.

The following reports consist of bills effective for the past legislative session:

  • Bills Effective on January 1st

  • Bills Effective Immediately

  • Bills Effective in 90 Days

  • Bills Effective on September 1st

Helpful Legislative Links:
Bill Look Up
House Website
Senate Website
 Texas Legislature Online
Texas Orthopaedic Association Legislative Action Center
Who Represents You?

Above information courtesy of the Texas Legislature Online website.
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