BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.S.B. 1526

By: Shapleigh

Border & Intergovernmental Affairs

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The Border Health Institute was created to facilitate a collaboration of international, national, regional, and local health-related institutions working in the Texas-Mexico border region. Institute members include Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at El Paso, The University of Texas at El Paso, the El Paso Community College District, R. E. Thomason General Hospital, the El Paso City/County Health District, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health, the El Paso County Medical Society, and the Paso del Norte Health Foundation. In recent years, the institute's activities have been greatly diminished as new organizations with similar missions have evolved.

C.S.S.B. 1526 requires each member of the institute to submit a long-term strategic plan, removes and adds institutions that compose the institute, and removes certain activities the institute is required to facilitate and assist.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.S.B. 1526 amends the Education Code to add the Medical Center of the Americas Foundation and the Department of State Health Services to those institutions that compose the Border Health Institute and to remove The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health, the El Paso County Medical Society, the Paso del Norte Health Foundation, and the Texas Department of Health from that list. The bill removes the specified activities of health-related institutions working in the Texas-Mexico border region that the Border Health Institute is required to facilitate and assist.  

C.S.S.B. 1526 requires each member of the institute to provide a long-term strategic plan for that member to each member of the governing board of the institute, each member of the legislature whose district includes any portion of a county where the institute operates, and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, not later than December 1 of each even-numbered year. The bill removes the requirement for an annual audited financial statement and project status report requirement. The bill requires the long-term strategic plan for each member to include a statement of the member's goals and objectives for providing health care services and education to persons living in the border region and conducting research into issues affecting public health in the border region, including research related to diabetes, infectious diseases, emerging infections, trauma care, environmental health, children's health, and health issues of particular concern to persons of Hispanic descent.

C.S.S.B. 1526 repeals a provision requiring the governing board to meet at least once a year to review the progress of the institute and determine the institute's future actions and operational plans. The bill repeals provisions related to the provision, construction, maintenance, and operation of physical facilities of the institute; the resources of the institute; and the 10-year strategic plan of the institute.

C.S.S.B. 1526 repeals Sections 151.004(d), 151.006, 151.007, and 151.010, Education Code.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the act does not receive the necessary vote, the act takes effect September 1, 2009.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.S.B. 1526 adds provisions not in the original that remove the specified activities of health-related institutions working in the Texas-Mexico border region that the institute is required to facilitate and assist; add the Department of State Health Services and the Medical Center of the Americas Foundation to the composition of the institute; and remove The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health, the El Paso County Medical Society, the Paso del Norte Health Foundation, and the Texas Department of Health from the composition. The substitute requires each member of the Border Health Institute to biennially provide a long-term strategic plan to address various border health-related issues, whereas the original requires the audited financial statement and a status report of projects undertaken by the institute to be completed biennially. The substitute removes the financial statement and status report requirement from current statute entirely.