Limits the liability of a railroad that enters into a contract with Denton County Transportation Authority to provide public passenger rail service, makes conforming changes to align with the Property Code, and clarifies contracting authority.
Eliminates 16 professional taxes and reduces the reliance on dedicated accounts for budget certification.
Removes the Texas Health Services Authority from statute on September 1, 2021, allowing it to function as a private nonprofit corporation after that date
Continues the Texas Workforce Commission and transfers to it Vocational Rehab programs.
Creates a Class A misdemeanor offense for the intentional publication of intimate visual material which are explicit images that are disclosed by a former spouse or partner who is seeking revenge.
Creates a committee made up of six members to provide a biannual reports to the legislature that includes the amount of money expended from the deferred maintenance fund.
Allows a city to extend its crime control and prevention boundaries to areas in its extraterritorial jurisdiction through a referendum of voters.
Increases transparency, accountability and oversight of state agency contracts.
Renews a program that directs a small portion of the wine sales and excise tax revenue to specific viticulture and enology research projects at state universities.
Provides property tax relief by increasing homestead exemption from $15,000 to $25,000.
Continues the HHSC Office of Inspector General.
Increases a grant cap to better position military communities to fund the appropriate and necessary projects to avoid closure and provide economic security.
Grants road building authority to Canyon Falls MUD 1 of Denton Co.
Requires public institutions of higher education to post mental health resources available to students on its website.
Provides property tax relief by increasing homestead exemption from $15,000 to $25,000.
Streamlines the Wine Industry Development and Marketing Advisory Committee, modifies its membership, and requires it to issue an annual report to the Agricultural Commissioner.
Renames a portion of FM 423 in Denton County as the U.S. Army Sergeant Enrique Mondragon Memorial Highway.
Allows an individual with a CHL to immediately exit a TSA screening checkpoint, in an airport, upon realizing or being notified that they are carrying a handgun.
Makes clarifications to bring the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act into compliance with the federal Deficit Reduction Act.
Increases representation on the DCTA board, clarifies contracting issues, and authorizes DCTA to join a Local Government Corporation.
Requires the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services to evaluate family cost sharing provisions in the Early Childhood Intervention program and implement changes to increase the cost effectiveness family cost sharing.
Allows a judge to order that juveniles in the juvenile justice system be screened for chemical dependency.
Requires that data submitted by healthcare facilities to the Department of State Health Services regarding Healthcare Associated Infections specify whether an infection resulted in the death of a patient while hospitalized and requires the Department to make this information available to the public.
Enhances the state's ability to detect and prevent fraud, waste and abuse in Medicaid and across the health and human services system.
Aligns meningitis vaccine requirements for college students with Centers for Disease Control recommendations and national best practices.
Promotes evidence-based practices for prevention programs that focus on homes visitation.
Closes the final loophole in child-care background checks and allows Child Care Licensing (CCL) to focus on high-risk providers.
Prohibits psychiatric care facilities from hiring psychological nursing assistants, commonly known as psych techs, who have committed serious crimes and requires the Department of State Health Services to maintain an employee misconduct registry for psych techs.
Requires all clinical staff, clinical trainees, medical students, interns, and resident physicians of a hospital to wear badges clearly stating their names, their departments, and their job or trainee titles.
Permits Cap Metro and DCTA to create a local government corporation to coordinate transportation services between local entities.
Establishes School Health Advisory Council Subcommittees to make recommendations to school boards on how to increase physical activity and improve school fitness among students.
Ensures that all photos, videos, and recordings taken during Child Care Licensing inspections and investigations remain confidential, unless release is required by rule or law.
Fully integrates physical and behavioral health services for our Medicaid population, expands consumer choice of providers, and increases budget certainty for the state.
Creates a felony criminal offense for continuous violation of a protective order.
Improves the coordination of Medicaid long-term services and supports with acute care services, redesigns the LTSS system to more efficiently serve individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and expands on quality-based payment initiatives to promote high-quality, efficient care throughout Medicaid.
Increases the penalty for illegally passing a school bus.
Prevents fraud and better assists the Health and Human Services Commission in determining eligibility for its programs by cross-referencing information of program applicants with social security numbers from the Department of Public Safety.
Allows minors who are pregnant or already have children to consent to their own immunizations.
Requires the Department of State Health Services to create a public reporting system to allow the public to view and compare performance and outcome measures among community mental health and substance abuse providers.
Fixes typographical errors and clarify ambiguous references in law relating to crime victims so that these acts can be carried out as intended.
Requires the state registrar and local or county registrars to include the date of a person’s death on their birth certificate, regardless of their age.
Streamlines agency reporting by eliminating, reducing, or redirecting over 100 statutorily mandated reports.
Protects children's credit scores by requiring credit reporting agencies, at the request of a parent, to create a credit file for a child under the age of 16.
Raises production limit for brewpubs to 10,000 Barrels up from 5,000. Allows Self-Distribution of 1,000 Barrels.
Makes reforms to the Board's complaint review and resolution processes, strengthens the Board's authority and enforcement powers, and increases staffing to improve the Board's ability to respond to complaints and potential fraud.
Authorizes the Canyon Falls Water Control and Improvement District No. 2 in Denton County to build roads.
Expands data collection from universities in Texas to include information about what type of human stem cell research is being conducted and how it is funded.
Makes clarifying changes and updates to the Board of Nursing’s regulation of nurses to improve the practice of nursing and patient safety.
Eliminates duplicative state regulation of dental laboratories in Texas.
Ensures that nursing facility licensure fees reflect the cost of regulation, aligns Alzheimer's certification with the three-year licensure cycle, and increases accountability in the Medicaid bed allocation process.
Allows active and retired military physicians to provide charitable care to uninsured Texans through a "military limited volunteer license" issued by the Texas Medical Board.
Requires licensed child care facilities to establish risk-based policies to protect children from vaccine-preventable diseases.
Adds an EMS provider and family violence provider to the State Child Fatality Review Team Committee, clarifies the Committees role, and changes the Committee's reporting requirement from annual to biennial.
Authorizes wineries to remain open until 2 AM on New Year's Day to accommodate celebrations.
Makes it easier for physicians, advanced practice nurses, and physician assistants to work together to deliver health care services.
Requires judges, before approving the dismissal of a CPS suit, to consider whether any preexisting child support, visitation, or other issues impacting the welfare of children would continue or new orders would be issued.
Requires the TCEQ to consider input by a county in which a Municipal Utility District (MUD) is proposed outside of a municipality's corporate boundaries.
Directs the Department of Family and Protective Services and the Department of State Health Services to conduct a study on certain children who test positive for alcohol and controlled substances.
Prohibits a public or private institution of higher education from adopting or enforcing any rule, regulation or other provision prohibiting individuals with a valid concealed handgun license attending the institution from storing a legal handgun in their locked vehicle while parked on campus.
Requires hospital-owned and operated freestanding emergency medical facilities to advertise as emergency rooms if the facility charges emergency room rates.
Removes the minimum $1,000 threshold on the total sales price of all the items sold for the sales tax exemption on the sale of gold, silver, or rare coins, effectively removing existing restrictions on the use tax exemption for such items.
Expands protections for patients at our state hospitals by increasing oversight, employee training, and strengthening abuse and neglect reporting requirements.
Requires the Department of State Health Services to educate low-income individuals applying for health services about the availability of coverage and subsidies through the Health Insurance Exchange and requires individuals who are applying to receive services through the Department to certify that they do not have access to private insurance that covers those services.
Gives SBOE oversight over any service or product by an educational service center (ESC) that is curriculum-related, including instructional materials and curriculum management materials, including CSCOPE.
Strengthens the prescription program to deter abuse and addiction.
Requires the Department of State Health Services to provide timely and clear guidance on state food regulations to individuals and businesses upon request.
Gives peace officers and judges more authority to enforce communicable disease control measures.
Clarifies that there is not a conflict of interest when a prosecutor assists a domestic violence victim in obtaining protective orders, even if that victim may be involved in a CPS case in which the prosecutor's office is representing DFPS and the victim is a defendant.
Removes administrative barriers to allow DFPS to create a mentoring program for parents in the CPS system.
Expands the list of victims who are eligible for early lease termination to include individuals who are being stalked; victims of attempted assault or abuse; and victims of indecency with a child and sexual performance with a child.
Directs the Department of Family and Protective Services to seek an appropriate waiver to allow the agency to utilize federal funds for prevention and reunification projects.
Requires HHSC to make recommendations to the Legislature to address mental health workforce shortages in this state.
Allows filing of a protective order in the county where the domestic violence offense occurred.
Restructures the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), implements recommendations of the State Auditor's Report, and strengthens conflict of interest and compliance provisions at CPRIT.
Ensures that the state is the payer of last resort for daycare services for kinship caregivers and foster parents.
Defines a term of two years for the Office of the Ombudsman for the State Supported Living Centers.
Adds a drug-testing eligibility requirement for applicants to receive unemployment compensation benefits.
Allows small brewers to devote a small amount of their annual production limit for direct sales to consumers. Sales to consumers will be dedicated for responsible, on-premise consumption and could not exceed 5,000 barrels annually.
Allows students and school district staff to offer traditional greetings regarding winter celebrations, including "Merry Christmas," "Happy Hanukkah," and "happy holidays."
Allows for CPS to create an alternate track for low-risk cases to promote collaboration with families and to ensure child safety.
Allows the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services (DARS) to obtain background checks for blind individuals enrolled in Vocational Rehabilitation.
Ensures that the CPS caseworker consult with the CASA, guardian ad litem, and attorney ad litem prior to changing a child's CPS placement, except in cases of emergency.
Clarifies that a "license holder" under the Medical Practice Act includes a person holding a license, permit, or certificate to practice medicine in Texas for purposes of protecting physician's private information.
Designates the month of April as Water Safety Month.
Expands the eligibility requirements for child advocacy centers (CACs) to receive certain contracts to provide services for children and family members in child abuse and neglect cases.
Gives Grapevine representation on the Fort Worth Transportation Authority's board.
Prohibits the use of public-private partnerships in the Capitol complex.
Strengthens licensure requirements for emergency medical services (EMS) providers.
Ensures that the use of psychotropic medications by foster youth is appropriate, necessary, and monitored.
Codifies several elements of transition plans for foster youth and further strengthens plans by adding requirements for food preparation and public transportation training.
Protects individuals receiving services through programs administered by DADS from abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
Requires all newborns to receive a test for congenital heart disease prior to the newborn's release from the hospital unless the parents opt-out.
Requires funding formulas for regional and local health departments to be based on local needs, and requires an evaluation of how to best utilize public health funding.
Gives counties and municipalities the authority to treat stagnant water located on abandoned or foreclosed properties with a mosquito larvicide in order to prevent the spread of West Nile Virus.
Requires that CPS managers, whether newly hired or promoted, complete CPS manager training before beginning this position. The training must assist managers develop skills to manage employee workloads, manage a mobile workforce, and implement operational policies.
Directs that records of a nonprofit foundation supporting CPRIT is subject to the Open Records Act.
Repeals several health and human services programs and advisory councils that have fulfilled their original statutory purpose and are no longer functioning.
Authorizes Fort Worth to create a project financing zone to improve the Coliseum and Convention Center.
Sets a new annual beer/ale production limit of 125,000 barrels and extends the rights afforded to in-state brewers permit holders to their out-of-state counterparts. Limits the amount of ale that a brewer can self-distribute to no more than 40,000 barrels annually.
Sets a new annual beer/ale production limit of 125,000 barrels and extends the rights afforded to in-state brewers permit holders to their out-of-state counterparts. Limits the amount of ale that a manufacturer can self-distribute to no more than 40,000 barrels annually.
