Emergency CPS/Foster Care Legislation and Voter ID

HB 4 & HB 5 – Emergency CPS/Foster Care Legislation Passes the Texas House

Without a single no vote cast, HB 4 and HB 5 passed the Texas House this week. The bills will now be considered by the Texas Senate. This legislation will implement critically needed reforms of our CPS and foster care systems.

HB 2481 – Legislation to Preserve Texas Voter ID

On Monday, I filed HB 2481 to preserve Texas’ Voter ID law by providing a declaration for voters who do not and cannot reasonably obtain acceptable photo identification. These updates are necessary to comply with the 5th Circuit ruling while ensuring the integrity of our voting process. If passed, HB 2481 would do the following:

• Allowing voters to cast a ballot if they have an approved secondary form of identification and execute a declaration indicating they are who they say they are and do not have and cannot reasonably obtain approved photo identification for one of several specified reasons.
• Allowing voters to use otherwise acceptable photo identification that is more than 60 days expired if they execute a declaration stating that they cannot obtain a new form of photo identification for one of the several specified reasons.
• Establishing a criminal penalty for knowingly making a false statement on the declaration as up to a third-degree felony.
• Allowing voters over age 70 to cast a ballot using expired, but otherwise acceptable, photo identification.
• Requiring the Secretary of State to establish a mobile program for issuing election identification certificates.

Weatherford Chamber Legislative Visit

This week we welcomed the Weatherford Chamber delegation to their state capitol for a legislative visit to Austin. We passed HR 391 recognizing February 27 2017, as Weatherford Day at the State Capitol.