José Rodríguez, Texas State Senator District 29:

When the 83rd Legislature ended a new cycle began — interpreting and implementing laws passed during the session.

There isn’t enough room here to describe every law that passed, let alone go into the detail about the process of enacting those new rules. Consider these some of the highlights; if you’re interested in more, please contact my office, which can explain my bills and many others, or direct you to the appropriate resource for more information. The contact information is at the end of this piece.

One of the laws passed during the session was one that allowed Texans to vote on creating a water fund. That ended up being Proposition 6 in November’s Constitutional Amendment election, which passed overwhelmingly.

It allows Texas to use $2 billion of the state’s $8 billion savings fund – properly named the Economic Stabilization Fund, but known more commonly as the Rainy Day Fund – to create the State Water Implementation Fund of Texas) and State Water Implementation Revenue Fund of Texas. The SWIFT is to receive the $2 billion, and revenue generated from SWIFT projects would be used to fund the SWIRFT.

The accounts are to be managed by the Texas Water Development Board, which is in the process of developing specific plans for how the money is to be spent.

Proposition 6 was not the only important vote in November. I also strongly favored Propositions 1 and 4, which help service members and their families. As a member of the Veterans Affairs and Military Installations Committee I helped craft those proposals, which reduce property taxes for surviving spouses of military members killed in action (Proposition 1) and reduce property taxes for disabled veterans or their surviving spouses who live in a home that was donated to them by a charitable organization (Proposition 4).

Another key law we passed was HB 5, which transitions from the three current high school graduation programs to one foundation high school program with endorsement options to increase flexibility for students. H.B. 5 also reduced the number of high stakes tests that had resulted in too much teaching to the test while it encouraged flexible course requirements to match our state’s workforce needs.

During the debate, I was concerned that too much flexibility could potentially undermine the rigor needed for our students to be college ready. At this writing, it appears that the State Board of Education will not require students to complete Algebra II – a core college preparation course – in each of the endorsement plans. This is a reversal from the SBOE initial proposal. However, HB 5 provides local districts the ability to require Algebra ll, and school districts in El Paso County have stated their intention to maintain the Algebra ll requirement.

In addition to supporting HB 5, I also passed significant transparency and accountability bills. One of those, SB 122 adds school districts’ boards of trustees to the list of county officials who can be removed from office for incompetence or misconduct. This was part of a package of bills I passed as a response to issues that grew out of a corruption and cheating scandal in the El Paso Independent School District.

The issues at the EPISD were not unique to that district or to my community; one of the findings was that the school board failed in its oversight responsibilities, which resulted in the commission of the Texas Education Agency replacing them with an appointed board. I believe in the future it would be better for members of a community to have the option to take action, which this law allows.

SB 1795 was meant to allow the state to accommodate the work of Navigators, specially trained workers who are to help consumers understand new coverage options under the Affordable Care Act. However, the state leadership and the Texas Department of Insurance has taken the law far beyond its intent, using SB 1795 as a pretext to create unnecessary rules for Navigators that make it very difficult for them to help people.

This is a critical issue in Texas and particularly in El Paso County, with more than six million uninsured in Texas, and about 180,000 in El Paso County. Those numbers show why we have to work hard to enroll people for insurance under the Affordable Care Act, and why we must continue to push Texas to expand Medicaid. The failure to do so has left a “coverage gap,” which affects more than one million adults who cannot afford insurance under the exchanges but cannot get Medicaid.

Still, it’s estimated that more than half the uninsured Texans will be able to purchase insurance through the marketplace, which already is reducing costs, with 2.6 million people receiving some help with the purchase.

Using a new state law meant to help people find insurance to make it harder for people to find insurance is unconscionable.

Each legislative session we are given the privilege of making government work for the people of Texas. We share a great state in a great country, and it is our constitutionally framed government that holds us together in this unique union.

We face great challenges, from water to energy to education to transportation (in addition to allowing Texas to vote on water in 2013, we also will have a vote in November 2014 on transportation), and government is how the public interest is represented. As you can see above, there is much to do, as these issues only represent a fraction of the important work at hand!

I’m proud to represent District 29 in the Texas Senate, and to play a role in representing my constituents in these big questions. We are hard at work in 2014 helping implement the laws of 2013, and planning for the legislative session of 2015! If you have any questions or comments, please feel to contact me.