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Advocate Now!
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The 88th Texas Legislative Session is in Full Swing!
The weekly newsletter of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops (TCCB), called the Texas Catholic Voice, can help you stay up to date on legislative happenings and how the bills being put forward this session match up with our Catholic faith.
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Every newsletter includes a list of the bills the TCCB is supporting in committee that week. See details below and check back weekly to see some of the bills that are highlighted and contact your Texas representatives about them!
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Find My Representatives
Advocacy begins with knowing who to contact. Use the button below to find your representatives' contact information. It's as easy as typing your address. The next step is simple: pick up your phone, keyboard, or pen to deliver your message. Your voice makes an important difference!
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Elected Officials
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April 2, 2023Catholic Advocacy Day & More Work To Do!
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Catholic Advocacy Day - Tuesday, March 28
On Tuesday, March 28, St. Austin parishioners joined thousands of Catholics from around the State to speak to state representatives and advocate for bills that promote our Catholic values. High on the list were supporting parental choice in education, integrated background checks, extending post-partum Medicaid care to new moms, establishing the Mental Health and Brain Research Institute of Texas, and not sentencing severely mentally ill persons to death. Groups that met with legislators also asked them to oppose prohibiting undocumented immigrants from enrolling in Texas public K-12 schools.
See the full list of priority bills HERE. And don't forget - the legilsative session isn't over yet! Keep reaching out to your legislators about bills that are important to you as a Catholic, and check back weekly for more updates!
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St. Austin parishioners Kristen Dempsey Pasyk and Jennifer Kirsch pose with Bishop Joe Vasquez and other Austin-area Catholics at Catholic Advocacy Day on March 28. (Photo Credit: Robert Cavazos)
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March 26, 2023
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Promising Update on HB 2127
After the recent hearing on HB 2127*, the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops (TCCB) is pleased to report promising conversations with the author and other legislators. The TCCB believes improvements are being made to the bill. TCCB currently opposes this bill. However, their position could change based on improvements to the bill.
When a bill is formally changed such that the TCCB position changes, they will announce it in an action alert and on their Facebook and/or Twitter accounts after they verify the new bill text in a committee sub or accepted amendment. We'll keep you posted!*HB 2127 precludes municipalities or counties from adopting or enforcing an ordinance in a field occupied by provisions of certain codes unless explicitly authorized by statute. Read more below.
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The Texas Bishops' Criteria for Supporting Parental Choice in Education
The first hearing for bills on parental choice in education was Wednesday, March 22, at 9:00 am. The TCCB testified in support of SB 8 and SB 2354 as well as registered their support for SB 176 and SJR 29.
The bishops' criteria for supporting parental choice legislation includes the following:a preferential option for the poor and vulnerable, ensuring students with the greatest academic and financial need are first in line;
academic accountability which requires accreditation and the administration of a norm- or criterion-referenced assessment each year (current practice at accredited schools);
financial accountability through random audits of ESAs (Education Savings Account) by a third party; and
protections for the privacy, autonomy and religious freedom of participating schools ensuring that educators are not required to modify their creed, practices, admissions policies, curriculum, performance standards, or assessments to serve ESA students.
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Keep Advocating to Support Moms and Young Families!
On Thursday, the TCCB testified in support of HB 12, which extends coverage for postpartum women receiving Medicaid to 12 months. Last December the Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee reported 118 women died from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth in 2019, and that 90% of those deaths were preventable. This data is alarming and tragic and demonstrates how vulnerable women are during pregnancy and after giving birth, especially those who lack comprehensive healthcare. The bishops support HB 12 because it will save lives and help create healthy families.
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March 19, 2023
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Advocate FOR School Choice and Improving Public Schools
Parental choice in education will certainly be one of the most intense topics of the upcoming of the 88th legislative session. This week there were many bills filed to provide parents with more educational options. The bishops have always supported parental choice in education while recognizing that when funding or capacity is limited it is important to exercise the preferential option for the poor and vulnerable to ensure those with greatest need are prioritized.
TCCB has outlined the school choice legislation they are supporting at this point.
Improving Public SchoolsHB 195 requires inclusion of accommodations during a disaster or emergency situation in an IEP or 504 plan. The TCCB supports this bill to assure that emergency plans in schools account for the special needs of those with disabilities.
HB 473/SB 562 requires a school to include parents in a threat assessment of a student. The TCCB supports this bill to provide greater engagement by parents in assessments of student safety.
HB 1157 allows excused absences from public school for mental health appointments. The TCCB supports this bill to recognize the importance of mental health care.
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Advocate AGAINST Predatory Lending and Removing Local Ordinances
Payday and auto-title lending ordinances directly affect many people served by Outreach and SVDP, who take out these loans when they run out of money and see no other option to pay their bills. Ordinances in the City of Austin currently curb some of the worst of predatory lending in our city, aimed at reducing the cycle of poverty that these loans can create or exacerbate. These ordinances would be removed if HB 2127/SB 149 became law.
Please join Outreach and SVDP volunteers in advocating AGAINST these bills that would remove limits to predatory lending in Austin.HB 2127 precludes municipalities or counties from adopting or enforcing an ordinance in a field occupied by provisions of certain codes unless explicitly authorized by statute. The TCCB opposes this bill which would undermine the work of local communities to address local issues, including payday lending ordinances.
SB 149 limits the authority of a municipality to regulate statewide commerce. The TCCB opposes this bill because the broad definition of "commercial activity" would likely affect the efficacy of payday and auto-title lending ordinances that protect poor and vulnerable Texans.
The workers rights organization, Workers Defense Project, also opposes these bills. Among the local protections that would be rolled back by the bills include water breaks in Austin and Dallas. Undoing such an important worker protection leaves workers in danger of heat exhaustion, heatstroke, and even death. Texas is the deadliest state for construction workers, where one construction worker dies every three days.
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And There's More!
Check out this week's Texas Catholic Voice for even more opportunities to speak up for a better Texas! Bills highlighted this week include opportunities to improve rehabilitation and re-entry of offenders, public schools, family preservation and the foster care system, religious freedom, post-partum care for new moms, and to remove barriers to accessing Medicaid and CHIP.
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March 12, 2023
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Advocate to Protect Children by Closing Loopholes
Many background check databases and resources exist, with various levels of access. This system creates loopholes where a known abuser is on one list but may not be on others, and some providers have access to one list and not others. The Texas Bishops support this bill package that, if passed, will significantly close loopholes that currently limit the ability of private schools, childcare and child service providers to protect children:
HB 3198/SB 1473 Omnibus Bill on Child Protection
HB 3199/SB 1469 Apply Pre-Employment Affidavit to Child Welfare or Services Organizations
HB 3201/SB 1470 Add Child Care Providers to TEA Do Not Hire Access
HB 3202/SB 1471 Require Equal Access to TEA Fingerprinted Background Checks
HB 3204/SB 1472 Extend DFPS Central Registry to all Child Welfare Service Organizations
Read more about each bill in the Texas Cathlic Voice March 6 newsletter.
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Advocate to Limit the Use of the Death Penalty
HB 180 requires a convicting court to withdraw the order of the court setting a date for execution in a death penalty case on the motion of the attorney representing the state.
HB 205 allows a court to grant a convicted person relief on an application for writ of habeas corpus if the court finds that, had newly discovered scientific evidence been available at the time of the trial, the person would have received a different punishment.
HB 314 removes the use of the death penalty for defendants who are found guilty in a capital felony, if the finding of guilt is based solely on the testimony of a single eyewitness without any corroborating evidence.
HB 727 prohibits the sentence of death on a defendant who, at the time of the commission of a capital offense, was a person with severe mental illness.
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Advocate for Crime Victims, Mothers & Families, Medicaid Recipients, and Veterans
HB 279 amends the penal code by treating a disabled individual the same as a child in human trafficking.
HB 798 removes the requirement that a victim be in their place of residence to be entitled to one-time compensation for relocation and housing rental expenses.
HB 300 makes items for mothers and families (including diapers and wipes) more affordable by making them exempt from sales tax.
HB 54 raises the personal needs allowance for certain Medicaid recipients who are residents of long-term care facilities.
HB 671 requires the Texas Veterans Commission to conduct a suicide prevention campaign to provide veterans with information regarding suicide prevention.
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March 5, 2023
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Advocate to Support Moms & Young Families
HB 12 would extend Medicaid eligibility to new mothers in Texas to a year after the delivery of their child, significantly increasing the length of time moms can access critical postpartum health coverage. The TCCB supports this bill to provide mothers with extended postpartum care.
HB 300 would exempt diapers, wipes, other essential baby items and feminine hygiene products from the state’s sales tax. The TCCB supports this bill to help to make those items for mothers and families in the state more affordable.
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Advocate to Improve our Criminal Justice System
HB 188 improves transparency in capital sentencing proceedings.
HB 247 promotes reentry of the incarcerated into society by allowing review of sentences.
HB 270 ensures innocent persons have access to justice related to DNA evidence.
HB 286 ensures innocent persons have access to justice when new evidence is available.
HB 381 limits the use of the death penalty.
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Find My Representatives
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Advocacy begins with knowing who to contact. Use the button below to find your representatives' contact information. It's as easy as typing your address. The next step is simple: pick up your phone, keyboard, or pen to deliver your message! Your voice makes an important difference to those in dire need.
Find my
Elected Officials
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The Texas Capitol
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Travis County Courthouse
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Austin City Hall
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US House of Representatives
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US Senate
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Our Weekly Invitation to Participate in Advocacy
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At the end of every Mass, we’re dismissed with the invitation to “Go out and announce the Gospel with your lives.” There are a few different ways we’re sent forth, but that’s the gist. We are to go out and LIVE the Gospel call of Love and Service. Live out your Love through Advocacy.
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January 2022Ask Congress to Support poor families & protect our common home!
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According to Catholic teaching, the family is "the most basic form of human community," and therefore is "intimately linked" to the long-term future of our nation. Therefore, "economic and social policies as well as the organization of the work world should be continually evaluated in light of their impact on the strength and stability of family life," (Economic Justice For All no. 93). The Child Tax Credit is an economic and social policy that supports the strenth and stability of family life. Last year, more than 36 million families received a monthly payment through the expanded Child Tax Credit program to help make ends meet. December marked the last monthly payment until Congress acts to extend the expanded Child Tax Credit. The expanded credit has been an extremely effective anti-poverty program, lifting 3.8 million children above the poverty line.
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Interesting Facts
If the expanded credit is not renewed, the amount of help families receive will shrink, monthly payments will end, roughly one-third of households will no longer be eligible to receive the full credit because their incomes are too low, and the lowest-income families will be cut off from the credit all together.
On the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement, Pope Francis called for "a culture of care, which places human dignity and the common good at the center." The environment and human beings everywhere, especially the poor and vulnerable, stand to benefit from the care of our common home. For this reason, USCCB encourages Congress to advance climate investment policies that will help protect our common home, including tax incentives to support existing and emerging technologies in clean energy, resilience investments focused on protecting low-income and minority communities, and incentives to decarbonize the economy. Such investments are necessary if the US is to reach its current Paris Agreement goals to reduce carbon emissions by 50% by 2030.
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Climate Change
Policies are needed to address "the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor." Ask Congress to invest in care for creation and to extend the expanded Child Tax Credit, ensuring it remain fully refundable so that it is available to the lowest income families and that it continues to include mixed-status families.
We encourage you to add your own personal story about why climate investments matter to you, and/or how 2021’s expanded Child Tax Credit has helped your family or your community.
Thank you for taking action. You can read a recent USCCB letter that includes advocacy for care for creation and an expanded Child Tax Credit here.
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