(This legislative update is produced by the UH System Office of Governmental Relations and the UH Division of University Advancement as a service to the UH System community, our alumni, and our friends.)
Editor's Note: Legislative news available through local print and broadcast media may supersede the news in this update, which was written on Friday, May 30. We will have another update as soon as possible in the next day or so.
Meeting on many late nights, the conference committee completed their deliberations last week. However, they have not yet taken the final vote on the bill. In order to pass, the bill must be printed by midnight Friday (barring a suspension of the rules). Negotiations on the budget broke down several times. Ultimately, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick met privately to iron out some serious disagreements, including medical school funding. Apparently, tuition deregulation was an item of negotiation as well. While it has not been publicly released, the leadership has confirmed that a rider has been placed in the appropriations bill that reduces higher education appropriations by $500 million if tuition deregulation does not pass. According to news reports, there is disagreement among the leadership regarding the details of deregulation. (An article from The Quorum Report, an online newsletter, is attached at the end of this report.)
Allowing universities to retain 100% of their earned indirect cost recovery funds (IDC) has also been an issue of dispute in the conference committee. The Senate preferred a phased-in methodology while the House provided for immediate 100 % retention of IDC in HB 1887. When HB 1887 was before the Senate, Sen. Bill Ratliff offered (and passed) an amendment similar to the rider placed in the appropriations bill. It says that if tuition deregulation does not pass, IDC funds will not be appropriated. The House concurred with this amendment, passing the bill, which will now be forwarded to the governor.
HB 3526, which consolidates the two research funds, passed the Senate with one clarifying amendment. The House concurred with the amendment and passed the bill Friday. The bill will now be forwarded to the Gov. Rick Perry.
A bill authorizing $25 million for UH for recovery from Tropical Storm Allison has passed both houses. After the House has concurred in Senate amendments, it will be sent to the Governor.
The legislature will be meeting throughout the weekend. At this point in the session, they are limited to concurring in amendments and adopting conference committee reports. There are still many, many items yet to be decided including tort reform, health and human services reorganization and hundreds of less significant issues. Tensions are high and even though a bill is moving, as it should, other variables can cause bills to fail at this point.
The following article is used with permission.
Quorum Report
Editor: Harvey Kronberg
P.O. Box 8 Austin, Texas 78767
Voice: 512-292-8191
Fax: 512-292-0099
Email: kronberg@quorumreport.com
May 29, 2003 12:51 PM
Copyright May 29, 2003 by Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
In a brief conversation with QR, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said the following:
“You’ve reported grumbling from senators over the apparent will to support total deregulation of universities, a proposal Speaker Craddick is pushing. It appears a strong majority of senators prefer the Senate version of two-year stair-stepping to total deregulation—increasing tuition $23 per semester hour each of the next two years. The Senate wants to walk on deregulation before it runs and make sure universities don’t want to run kids out of college. So we have added to HB 3015 an amendment that 40% of tuition increases be set aside for financial aid.”
Dewhurst said his deal with Craddick was that “as long it contains total deregulation now or later.”
“I personally hope the House considers a stair-step to total deregulation, even if they are short stairs. The Senate’s reason for including objective criteria for deregulation—which the universities reasonably should easily meet—such as following a master plan, continuing to improve excellence and providing financial aid, was the University of Texas’ proposal to me. And their chairman told me they had no problem sun-setting deregulation in 2007 because they were sure the Legislature would be satisfied with their reforms under deregulation.”
The House is expected to bring up tuition deregulation later this afternoon. And they are going to seek a resolution to go outside the bounds of the conference committee.
Copyright May 29, 2003 by Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved.
"UH SYSTEM DAY IN AUSTIN" PHOTO GALLERY ONLINE—Visit the "UH System Day in Austin" Photo Gallery for a look at all the activities related to the visit by some 400 students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends to the state capitol building on February 18, including images of the bus trip, the pep rally at Sholz Garten, the visit to the Senate Chamber and legislators offices, and the evening reception for legislators.
WATCH HOUSE, SENATE PROCEEDINGS ONLINE—Now you can watch the legislative sessions and committee meetings on line. Click on any of these links for live audio and video images…
Live broadcasts from House chamber and from committee rooms
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlo/house/broadcast.htm
Live broadcasts from Senate chamber and from committee rooms