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"I'm honored to represent Walker County, the headquarters for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Our area is responsible for overseeing an inmate population usually of over 150,000, and also managing the state's probation and pardon and parole systems. It's a job that is done by unsung heroes who I am proud to call my friends." -- Lois
*She’s delivered state employee pay raises and increased “hazardous duty” pay for the employees of TDCJ. In 2009, Lois helped secure a seven-percent pay raise for correctional officers. She's served on the budget sub-committee on criminal justice and has a long-standing respect for the funding needs of our criminal justice system.
*She’s passed several prison reforms, like tougher contraband laws and a ground-breaking plan creating a “G.I. Bill” scholarship program for correctional officers to help them afford a college education (unfortunately the bill was vetoed in both in 2009 and 2007 by Governor Perry). She is proud to have been honored by the Correctional Employees Council of AFSCME Texas.
*To keep our communities safe, Lois works closely with our law enforcement, fire and rescue, and EMS communities. For example, at the request of the Austin County 911 Emergency Service District, she passed a bill to help them collect fees from out-of-state companies which were being charged to local customers but were being diverted away from the local 911 district.
*In 2009, she passed House Bill 2730, one of the only major "sunset bills" to pass in session. Lois received bipartisan support for major reforms of scandal-plagued DPS. She wrote a bill that brings new tools and internal reforms to state's law enforcement agency. On the heels of management turmoil following two executive directors stepping down within the past year, her idea to create a new Inspector General role has been widely praised. The bill also strengthens guidelines for the state's division of emergency management, to address some issues raised during Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike.
*She worked with the Austin County District Attorneys Office and authored HB 254, an important crime-fighting measure to make it easier to prosecute identity thieves.
*Lois has increased funding to the Bill Blackwood Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas (LEMIT) and the Correctional Management Institute of Texas (CMIT) at Sam Houston State University, which is the largest and most sophisticated statewide preparation program for police and correction officer management in the nation.
*After Hurricane Ike created extended power outages in our area, she 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. Her idea to prevent the extended power outages of Hurricane Ike were debated heavily during the 2009 session. In the end, another major utility bill was amended with Lois' bill and passed. Today, if another Ike hits, all power companies are able to temporarily inner-connect after a storm to share power.
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"We applaud Rep. Kolkhorst for listening to child care advocates and working with her fellow legislators to make sure that early care and education programs in Texas strive for quality. Texas children and their families surely have an ally in Kolkhorst."
~ Susan Craven, Exec. Dir.,
Texans Care for Children
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