With the upcoming session of the Texas Legislature just around the corner, I'm determined to try to stay more on top of things this year and do a better job of letting you know how you can get involved when there are issues that are relevant to you. It doesn't seem like a lot of organizations are on the ball yet but here are a few:
Texas Press Association Bill Watch Database
Top 5 priorities:
HB 155: Relating to the application of the sunset review process to certain exemptions from property taxes and state taxes.
SJR 6: Proposing a constitutional amendment to require a House or committee of the Legislature to take a record vote on certain legislative measures and actions.
HB 54: Relating to requiring a record vote by each house of the legislature on final passage of a bill and to public notice of the record vote.
HB 91: Relating to the disclosure of certain public information collected by the Texas Department of Insurance.
HB 47: Relating to imposing a civil penalty on a county that fails to make available to the public certain information with respect to an arrest or search warrant.
Texas Classroom Teachers Association Capitol Update (online but currently inactive)
United Ways of Texas provides a great public policy newsletter (active)
Campaigns for People has a legislative info page (online but currently inactive)
The Center for Public Policy Priorities always provides outstanding information (although I wish they'd set up a RSS feed!)
Public Citizen, TexPIRG, the ACLU, and numerous others always have good information but aren't yet online for the new session. La Raza Unida promises a Legislative Action page soon.
Please send me your other bill watch lists and suggestions for activists as soon as possible - I'll try to move this information to a permanent links section of my sidebar once I have more to work with.
Posted by sarah at December 15, 2004 1:18 PM | TrackBack