(This legislative update has been assembled by the UH System Office of Governmental Relations and edited by the UH Division of University Advancement as a service to the UH System community.)
Our reports on the appropriations process may begin to sound repetitive, but it is a very long and tedious process. It is rarely linear. This was another week of lengthy meetings in the House and Senate subcommittees. Because the House again accelerated an already aggressive schedule, the House subcommittee’s deadline for recommendations to the full committee was moved up by three days. And while this is still very early in the process, they have made some very favorable recommendations this week. The end result will, we believe, still depend heavily on how much money is reserved for the public education revamp and demands on health and human services.
That said, it is encouraging that the House subcommittee voted to recommend full funding for existing tuition revenue bonds. They also recommended placing an increase of $100 million for the Higher Education Fund on a “wish list.” While they had originally voted to use a new matrix for allocation of formula dollars, they rescinded that decision late last night and will use the existing formula.
The Senate work group on the Appropriations Bill has been seriously scrutinizing each aspect of the bill. They have made a preliminary decision to use the new matrix. They have discussed increasing the Higher Education Fund, restoring the five percent cuts and restoring and expanding dollars to the Research Development Fund. However, there is not currently unanimity on these issues. They hope to make final decisions on Monday.
Both the full House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Finance Committee are scheduled to mark-up the education portions of the budget beginning next Wednesday at 7 a.m.
Another caveat: It appears that the preliminary recommendations of the budget committees on both sides of the capitol may result in bills that are above the current revenue estimate and/or reserve substantially less for the public education fix than originally hoped.
An important legislative deadline is fast approaching. After March 11, legislators may not file legislation without special permission. Therefore, the number of bills filed every day for the next two weeks will increase substantially.
Photos by Coby James of The Daily Cougar have been added to the UH System Day in Austin photo gallery.
View all the photos and links to coverage in UH Today and The Daily Cougar.
Selected news articles from local, state, and national publications are being posted on the UH System Governmental Relations web page.
view the articles.Information on governmental relations policies
Find the names and addresses of Texas Senators and Representatives