The 87th Texas legislative session is in full swing and committee hearings in the House of Representatives start next week. In this issue of our newsletter, you’ll find information on a number of topics:
- Committee Assignments
- New Staff
- Bills Filed
- COVID-19 Vaccine Information
- COVID-19 Updates
Congratulations to Katy Football!
I was named to three committees by Speaker Dade Phelan. Bills are assigned to committees that specialize in the area of law the bill deals with. The bill can’t be voted on by the full House unless it gets a majority of the votes in the committee. It then goes to the Calendars Committee (or the Local and Consent Calendars Committee if the bill affects only one area of the state or is noncontroversial), which can either send it to the full House or block it from getting a vote.
This session I will be serving on:
Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence, which hears bills related to the state’s judicial system, including bills to limit frivolous lawsuits, bills that determine what issues can be the subject matter of lawsuits, the structure of the court system (such as when we need to add more courts or create a special court for a certain type of case), and procedures to be used in our state’s courts. The committee does not deal with criminal laws (which are heard in the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee) nor does it deal with most family law issues (which go to the Juvenile Justice & Family Law Committee), although it does hear bills about guardianship and probate matters.
Elections, which deals with election integrity issues, such as voter registration, cleaning up the voter roles, procedures for voting, and campaign finance.
Redistricting, which hears bills redistricting Texas’s congressional districts, state house and senate districts, the State Board of Education, and the state’s appellate court districts. Both the U.S. and Texas Constitutions require the legislature to redraw these lines every ten years, after the U.S. Census is published. Redistricting is due to occur this session, although the Census has been delayed by COVID, which might delay the legislature’s redistricting bills.
During the Legislation Session, I will be working with our new Capitol staff:
Pam Johnson, Chief of Staff, a veteran of the Texas Capitol, she served as Chief of Staff to former Representative Rodney Anderson and has been a valued staff member to several House members, most recently on the staff of Representative JM Lozano last session. She will be responsible for all operations of the Capitol office.
Emily Knaub, Legislative Director, a graduate of Baylor University with a degree in Political Science who earned a Master’s in Public Administration from Texas State University, she was the Legislative Director last session for Representative Ed Thompson. Previously, she served in the Constituent Communications Division of the office of Governor Greg Abbott and as assistant committee clerk in the House Committee on Public Health. She will advise Representative Schofield on legislation before the Texas House and Senate.
Annie Callegari, District Director/Legislative Aide, a graduate of the University of Texas with a degree in International Relations and Global Studies, she served last session as an intern for Representative (now Senator) Drew Springer. Previously, she was an intern for Senator Van Taylor. In addition to serving as legislative aide, she will be in charge of Representative Schofield’s operations in the district. Her grandfather, former Representative Bill Callegari, was Rep. Schofield’s predecessor as representative for HD 132.
Morgan Register, Legislative Intern, a senior at the University of Texas at Austin working towards a degree in Government. He plans to attend law school after graduation with the hopes of becoming a lawyer.
If you’d like to get in contact with our office, please feel free to go onto my webpage and click the “Email” button to fill out the form. The page can be found here: https://house.texas.gov/members/member-page/?district=132
You can also call our Capitol office at 512-463-0528 or our Katy district office at 281-492-0684. Our district office is located in the Houston Community College building at 1550 Foxlake Drive.
I encourage everyone to stay connected this session on legislation, committee hearings, and floor debates through the following website: https://capitol.texas.gov/
Bills Filed
will be filing bills this session on several key issues, including limiting government spending, freezing senior citizens’ property taxes, raising homeowner’s property tax “homestead exemption,” protecting Texans from being barred from social media, and protecting your property from the city of Houston’s “extra territorial jurisdiction.” I will also have bills to protect the fairness and integrity of our elections process. Here are the bills I have filed so far:
Freeze senior citizens property taxes – HB 1705 will freeze the property taxes of home owners over the age of 65. Currently, the portion of seniors’ property taxes that goes to the school district is frozen, but that is only about 55% of the average property tax bill. The other 45% goes to cities, counties, and special districts. Older Texans tell me all the time that rising property taxes are forcing them to consider moving out of state. It is not the government’s job to tax you out of your home. This bill will fix that.
Protect home owners’ religious displays – HB 1569 will protect home owners from having their religious displays removed by their home owners’ associations. Several years ago, a bill was passed to protect orthodox Jews from being told by their home owners association that they had to remove religious symbols from their front door. Some HOAs have misinterpreted this law to somehow give them authority to order the removal of any religious display that is not on the front door, such as a “He is Risen” cross placed on a front lawn at Easter. The law was designed to protect religious speech, not to give HOAs an excuse to ban it. This bill will clarify that no one has a right to ban your right to worship at your home.
COVID-19 Vaccine Information
I have been working closely with the Governor’s office, Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), and a number of representatives from the healthcare field to get information out about the COVID-19 vaccine.
So far it has been too difficult to find out where vaccines will be available and to know where to sign up to get vaccinated. Many people have told me that by the time they hear that a location will have the vaccine and go to sign up, they are told that location is already out of vaccine. It needs to become a lot easier to locate places that have the vaccine and to be able to sign up in time to get vaccinated.
We will try to push information out about how to sign up to get the vaccine as soon as we receive that notice. Unfortunately, the process for vaccine distribution is rapidly changing week to week. There is no one single, centralized location to sign-up or register for a vaccine. I would encourage you to reach out to your healthcare providers, particularly any hospital where you have previously sought medical care, to find out if they are expecting any vaccines and how you can sign up.
You can also reference DSHS’ website where a map is provided with the most current and up-to-date locations of vaccine distributions. Follow the prompts through the following link: https://dshs.texas.gov/coronavirus/
COVID-19 Updates
4,472,800 doses of the vaccine has been distributed, which has been administered to 3,391,990 people in 254 counties.
To see the latest Executive Orders issued by the Governor, follow this link:
https://lrl.texas.gov/legeLeaders/governors/displayDocs.cfm?govdoctypeID=5&governorID=45
To see the Governor’s report to open Texas, follow this link:
https://open.texas.gov/uploads/files/organization/opentexas/OpenTexas-Report.pdf
On February 9, Governor Abbott announced that the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) has launched the Texas Rent Relief Program — the first statewide rent and utility assistance program for qualifying households throughout Texas. This program has been created to administer the more than $1 billion allocated to Texas through the latest federal COVID-19 stimulus bill. TDHCA will begin accepting applications for the program on Monday, February 15th, but Texans can visit TexasRentRelief.com starting today to learn more about qualifications, required documents, and the application process.
Congratulations to Katy High School Football!
The Katy Tigers football team won their 9th state championship on January 16th!
Congratulation to Coach Gary Joseph and the entire team, coaching staff, and support staff on making history and becoming a storied part of the great tradition of Katy football. Coach Joseph, a member of the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame and 2012 National Coach of the Year, has been a part of eight of the Tigers nine state championships (including three as defensive coordinator before he became head coach).
Coach Joseph’s career record of 227-22 is only surpassed by his career-long dedication to instilling in his players the five principles of trust, respect, character, unselfishness, and work ethic.
Thank you and God Bless Texas,
