Kolkhorst Legislative Agenda Heads to Governer's Desk
June 2, 2009

(AUSTIN, TX) As the 81st Session concludes, the House and Senate have approved a string of bills and amendments by State Rep. Lois W. Kolkhorst, which she said achieves a great deal of her legislative agenda.

"Although the last few weeks of the 81st Texas Legislature have been mired in political fights and stalling tactics, I'm proud of the work we've done for House District 13, as well as for the entire state," Kolkhorst said. "In today's challenging times, all Texans deserve results from their lawmakers. I'm grateful that some of my solutions have found their way to the Governor's desk."

As Chair of the House Public Health Committee, Kolkhorst sponsored several healthcare policy initiatives, including:
Sponsoring Senate Bill 346 to improve the Texas immunization registry. The bill was passed on the heels of the H1N1 flu scare, and allows for a person's childhood immunization records to be carried over into adulthood, if the person so chooses. Currently, records are deleted when a child becomes 18 but in many instances, a person would prefer to have records retained.

Passing House Bill 4471, which will help fill an estimated shortage of 22,000 nurses across Texas, increasing the incentives schools receive for hiring more nursing teachers and graduating more nurses.

House Bill 4471 also resulted in an accompanying $30 million budget increase for the Nursing Shortage Reduction Program, created by Kolkhorst in 2007. Early estimates indicate the amendment will increase the local Blinn nursing program by $320,000 over the next two years.

Sponsored legislation (Senate Bill 527) to toughen the standards on mammography facilities that fail an inspection, requiring the facility to notify patients who recently received a mammography prior to inspection.

Sponsored legislation to require more drug price transparency within large state pharmacy benefit management contracts (PBMs). The provision may save state taxpayer dollars and also lower prescription prices for thousands of active and retired state employees, retired teachers, and employees of UT and Texas A&M.

Also further helped to lower pharmaceutical costs by ordering a state study of prescription data mining, by sponsoring Senate Bill 646.

Worked with local childhood cancer activists to include a new ad hoc committee seat for childhood cancer advocates to the new Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

She also promoted and enhanced the Brenham State School.
Supported legislation to increase funding and reporting standards within state schools, as well as to carefully scrutinize "community homes."

Worked on an amendment to House Bill 1454 to protect state schools from entering into a controversial pilot program that would have allowed advocacy groups to remove someone from state schools against the wishes of family members.

Passed House Bill 2730, one of the only major sunset bills to pass in session. Received bipartisan support for major reforms of scandal-plagued DPS.
Brings new tools and internal reforms to state's law enforcement agency.

Creates a new inspector general role on the heels of management turmoil following two executive directors stepping down within the past year.

Strengthens guidelines for the state's division of emergency management.

Worked with local Huntsville Correctional Officers to pass House Bill 518, creating a tuition loan-repayment program for students who agree to serve as a correctional officers upon graduation.
Also helped secure a seven-percent pay raise for correctional officers.

Honored historic Burton community with House Concurrent Resolution 71.
Designates the Burton Cotton Gin and Museum as the official Cotton Gin Museum of Texas, preserving the agriculture history of Texas.

Secured funding to ensure that the Star of the Republic Museum at Washington on the Brazos receives the additional $100,000 needed to complete it's interactive visitor upgrades to promote Texas history.
School children across Texas and around the world can visit online and learn about Texas history and find out how and why Texas was formed.

Online upgrades will help more visitors plan their trip to the park, and boost attendance at the birthplace of Texas.

Passed House Bill 1275, a local-option hotel tax which was requested by the Washington County Commissioners Court and the Brenham City Council.
Allows for expansion of the local Brenham hotel occupancy tax.

Worked with the Retired Teacher Association to pass House Bill 1259 adding safeguards to protect the multi-billion dollar Teacher Retirement System.
Helps avoid conflict of interests by requiring that the Attorney General approve the hiring of any outside legal counsel being considered to oversee fiduciary and ethics decisions at the pension fund.

Pushed for an additional $4,146,456 (5% increase) for Sam Houston State University in the state's higher education funding formula.
Wrote a special budget provision to also secure an additional $4 million for Sam Houston State University institutional enhancement fund.

Helped provide a $5.6 million increase in state dollars for Blinn College.
Base funding for Blinn College will total more than $46,747,000 for the next two-year budget cycle. An increase of over 13 percent for Blinn.

To help address high college tuition costs, pushed for a major new tuition transparency law, eventually passing House Bill 2504 which requires that all online syllabus course information be available online, before students enroll.
New policy will give more purchasing information to students, potential students, parents and taxpayers. Helps student loans stretch further.

Teamed up with Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raiser's Association to be the House sponsor for Senate Bill 1163, to help fight the spike in cattle thefts.
Toughens the penalties for theft of livestock, horses and exotic animals.

Worked with Texas County and District Clerks Association to write a major clean-up bill for managing our state's pubic records and court documents.
Passed House Bill 3666 to help clerks fight marriage certificate frauds.

Helped the Austin County Sheriff's Office and Austin County Peace Officers Association on their request to expand their 911 Emergency Management District Board to include law enforcement, passing House Bill 1187.

Wrote legislation so that the Pubic Utility Commission may require utility companies to work together after a hurricane or other disaster to restore power more quickly, even if companies are not on the same power grid.
To prevent the extended power outages of Hurricane Ike, a major utility bill was amended with Kolkhorst's bill, so all power companies are able to temporarily inner-connect after a storm to share power.

Crafted tax relief bill (House Bill 2505) to raise the small business exemption to $1 million, which was later included in a larger franchise tax reform bill.

Wrote major reforms to the Texas Economic Development Act (Chapter 313), to open the tax abatement application process to the public. Also limited the off-balance sheet payments made by applicants for tax breaks to school districts. The bill received statewide Associated Press news coverage.

Received a strong rating (88.24%) from the anti-tax advocacy group Texans for Fiscal Responsibility. This very strong score demonstrates a commitment to serving the people of Texas with a strong sense of fiscal discipline in mind.

Received the 2009 Annual Silver Spur Award from the statewide Texas Travel Industry Association for her efforts to promote Texas tourism.

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