TSHA Capitol Watch

January 17, 2024

Capitol Watch is the TSHA Legislative Team’s vehicle for keeping members informed of activity at the state capitol and in other state regulatory meetings.

If you have questions regarding this or other Capitol Watch postings, please contact a member of the TSHA Legislative Team:

• Lori Colletti, VP for Advocacy (government@txsha.org)
• Larry Higdon, Director of Governmental Relations (lwhtsha@gmail.com)
• Mark Hanna, Legal and Legislative Counsel

Legislative Information

Anything that you want to know about the legislative process can be found online at Texas Legislature Online.

Special Session Voucher Bills

Governor Abbott’s four special sessions of the legislature designed to pass school voucher legislation ended with the Senate passing their bill FOR vouchers and the House voting AGAINST passage of a voucher bill. TSHA opposed voucher bills in the regular session and all four special sessions, working with various education groups in opposition. The Governor has not called another special session but has vowed to oppose those representatives who did not support his voucher legislation in the upcoming election. Rest assured that voucher bills will surface again in future legislative sessions.

2024 Primary Elections Will Be Held March 5

Early voting begins February 20. In each party’s primary, if no candidate receives a majority vote – the top two candidates will compete in a runoff on May 28. Whichever primary you decide to vote in, you can vote only in that same party’s runoff. You can, however, vote for either party’s candidates in the general election. To see each county’s ballot for the primary, please click the button below to visit the Texas Secretary of State’s website. Remember that your local ballot may have other races of importance to the professions, e.g., school board elections.

Elected officials do check to see who voted. They can’t see who you voted for, but it is important that they know you are a voter. When a controversial bill is being debated during the session, or even a bill that has received limited input from the district, a senator or representative will ask staff to check whether the input received was from a campaign contributor and if they are on the voting rolls.

Please act now and contact the candidates.

• Find out their position on issues of importance to the professions and your business or school.
• What is their position on school vouchers?
• Will they support increased Medicaid funding to enhance payment to providers (specifically audiologists and speech-language pathologists) for patients in need?
• Will they support continued payment for telehealth services by audiologists and speech-language pathologists?
• Be sure to indicate that you live/work/vote in their district.
• Educate the (potential) legislator and their staff on your profession and how much you contribute to the health and education of those in your community. Share with them the broad scope of your professional abilities.
• Offer to help in their campaign and follow through with help.
• Work to be on a first-name basis with the candidate and staff.

Share with your TSHA Advocacy Team!

• Who do you know?
• In what capacity do you know them? (Campaign, church, school, etc.)
• What are their major interests? 
• Do they have a family member with a disability?
• Do they adamantly support or oppose our issues?

Be sure that the TSHA Advocacy Team knows who you are! Thank you for your help, and remember that you vote in their district. You make a difference.

Notices

• The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) adopted rules implementing changes made to Texas Occupations Code, Chapter 401 SB 2017, 88th Legislature, Regular Session (2023), implementing changes made by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding over-the-counter hearing aids and prescription hearing aids; and clarifies the requirements regarding medical statements for sales of hearing instruments to individuals under 18 years of age. The updated rule chapter is available on the Secretary of State website, as of January 1, 2024.
• The next Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists Advisory Board meeting is scheduled for February 26, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. CT. The meeting will be held via videoconference and will be viewable on TDLR’S You Tube channel.

• If you have documented information as to the number of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and audiologists working in the public schools/private schools in Texas, please send the information to Larry on the Advocacy Team (lwhtsha@gmail.com). This is a second request, and we still need the information.

• The TSHA Advocacy Team has had a request for TSHA to have a bill filed next session “requiring safe feeding and swallowing plans for public school students with pediatric feeding disorders.” If you know a legislator who would have experience with pediatric feeding disorders or an interest in the issue, please send the information to Larry at lwhtsha@gmail.com.

• Are you (or your company) experiencing difficulties in gaining sufficient reimbursement from BCBS to adequately continue offering your speech-language pathology or audiology services to your patients? The TSHA Advocacy Team and the Texas Occupational Therapy Association (TOTA) Advocacy team are working together to develop and provide resources to our respective members, which may be helpful in supporting their respective efforts to renegotiate their rates to be closer to an industry average. These resources are being developed and will be available on our TSHA website to our members. We would like to know the extent of the challenges the BCBS contract protocols are causing service issues for our providers. If you are a provider experiencing challenges with BCBS we would like to know about it. 

• In your visits with legislative candidates was there any discussion regarding their district constituents having difficulty receiving “hearing” services through Medicaid due to limited funding? If so, please forward the information to Larry at lwhtsha@gmail.com. 

• The TSHA PAC is in dire need of financial support. In the past, much of our funding has come during face-to-face meetings during which we could demonstrate how important PAC donations are each year. We must contribute to the campaigns of our “friends” in the legislature, those who know who we are and what we do for Texans with disabilities. Our professions aren’t financially capable of “buying” our way into an office, but we can certainly thank those who support our professions in the legislature. Please donate to the TSHA PAC.

Thank you for your help and support! Please support the TSHA PAC.

Your TSHA Legislative Team: Lori, Larry, and Mark