FLURRY OF BILL FILINGS HINT AT TEXAS LAWMAKERS' PRIORITIES

Texas lawmakers propose health program for children, mandatory
ultrasounds for women who seek abortions.

State lawmakers filed hundreds of would-be laws on Monday, including
proposals to create a health insurance program for children who have
a parent paying child support, strengthen background checks for
people who work with the elderly, and require women who seek an
abortion to first get an ultrasound.

It was the first day bills could be filed for the legislative session
that begins in January.

Although filing a bill is just the first step in a long process (of
about 6,200 bills introduced in 2007, only about 1,500 passed) the
filings offer a glimpse of what lawmakers will be debating.

State Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, chairwoman of the Senate
Committee on Health and Human Services, said that Texas is faring
better financially than many states but that its budget will be tight
because of "a growing price tag for Hurricane Ike" and rising costs
of Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for
low-income people and those with disabilities.

"We need to spend every penny wisely," Nelson, a member of the
Senate's budget-writing team , said in a statement.

Nelson proposed establishing a health insurance pool for children
whose child support cases are tracked by the attorney general's
office. As many as 500,000 of the 1.3 million children lack proof of
health insurance, despite state and federal requirements that the
parents provide medical support, she said. Parents, not the state,
would pay for insurance under the program.

Nelson also proposed requiring that people who work with elderly and
disabled people - such as employees of nursing homes, assisted living
facilities and institutions for people with mental retardation -
undergo fingerprint-based background checks. Criminal background
checks, but not fingerprint-based searches, are now required for many
of these jobs.

"Technology has reached the point where we should not have
individuals with serious criminal histories falling through the
cracks of our background checks, especially those working with
children, seniors and the disabled," Nelson's statement said.

Meanwhile, state Sen. Bob Deuell , R-Greenville, and others are
reviving a proposal to legalize needle-exchange programs, a bill that
was passed by the Senate in 2007 but died in a House committee.

Texas is the only state that does not allow programs that give clean
syringes to drug addicts, said Deuell, a doctor and the vice chairman
of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services. A San
Antonio-area pilot needle-exchange program authorized by the
Legislature in 2007 faced local opposition and never got off the ground.

Opponents of such programs say that they encourage use of illegal
drugs, but Deuell said medical research shows that they do not.

"It cuts down on hepatitis B and HIV; it gets people into rehab," he said.

Deuell is also proposing allowing certain children with disabilities
to join Medicaid. Now, he said, parents who work risk earning too
much for their children to qualify. His program would allow them to
stay in the program by paying a premium.

"If they work to better themselves, they lose the health care, and
the kid literally, without exaggeration, dies," Deuell said. "Let
these people work."

The ultrasound proposal, by Sen. Dan Patrick , R-Houston and state
Rep. Frank Corte Jr., R-San Antonio, would require women who seek an
abortion to first have an ultrasound - although they would not be
required to view the image - and to listen to the fetal heartbeat.

"Once an ultrasound is performed, and a woman sees it, she may decide
to change her mind and not have the procedure," Patrick said, "and
that's a wonderful thing, if that woman decides to keep that baby or
put it up for adoption."

A similar proposal passed the Senate last year but stalled in the House.

With Democrats gaining more seats in the House, the ultrasound bill's
chances might be even worse this time, said Sherri Greenberg, a
fellow at the Center for Politics and Governance at the LBJ School of
Public Affairs.

Last week's elections gave the House 76 Republicans and 74 Democrats,
but as election officials continued to count ballots in one North
Texas race, the balance of power, choice of House speaker and fate of
all legislation remains in question, said Greenberg, a former state
representative. "Things are very much in the air."