Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

A second-grader is burning with fever, but no one can find a parent. Freddie is embarrassed to turn in homework. Luis won't leave after school because someone will beat him up – again. Yolanda's parents didn't show for a teacher conference – again. Two brothers don't have heat at home, and their grades have nose-dived.

We urge the Legislature to take note that the future of research shines brightly on the border. And UTEP has what it takes to be a Tier One university, thus a nationally recognized university -- therefore drawing tremendous amounts of money and prestige into the El Paso economy.

Not too long ago, National Guard troops were deployed to border areas. They didn't have rifle-toting duties on the boundary line. Rather, they mainly assisted the Border Patrol in support roles such as surveillance, office work, road-building and maintenance, and other jobs that freed agents for other duties.

Making the appropriate investment in Medicaid can help reduce the number and frequency of hospital admissions by improving resident health, and increasing the capability of skilled nursing facilities themselves to successfully treat more complex medical conditions and incidents — at lower cost to taxpayers.

Federal officials released $14.4 million more to support 12 Texas health centers, many of which provide care to people with no health insurance. The federal money is expected to create more than 400 jobs in the state, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

It’s time to increase our energy efficiency goals and give utilities more tools to achieve new, more aggressive targets. In this time of economic uncertainty and out-of-control utility bills, homes and businesses across Texas deserve more action.

Members of the Public Safety Commission that oversees the department expressed shock and outrage that troopers were hired after failing a polygraph or admitting to past criminal behavior. Admittedly, a lie detector is a flawed piece of machinery, and past criminal behavior could be shoplifting once as a kid. Neither demands automatic dismissal. But the information shared at a commission meeting last month is an indication of how difficult it is for the department to find good recruits.

Once legislators complained that the commission was moving too quickly and that they didn't have enough time to provide input, the commissioners put off their decision a week. They will gather in a special meeting Thursday to approve stimulus money projects throughout the state.

Balance billing is the relatively uncommon situation where a doctor who does not have a contract with a health insurance plan sends the bill to the patient for payment of any balance unpaid by the health plan. This is the result of a health plan failing to provide a complete network of doctors for their patients. This is called an "inadequate network."

xDue to financial considerations, parents of uninsured children often avoid early treatment in the hope that an illness can be home medicated or will simply go away. If the condition becomes serious and parents have no choice, they seek medical care.

Immigration activists and Democratic lawmakers gathered this morning to promote "practical immigration policy." They said that immigrants, both documented and undocumented, provide great assets to the Texas economy, and that restricting or persecuting them would be a mistake.

Grover Norquist once boasted about the need to shrink government so “small” it could be drowned in the bathtub. Here is the Norquist recipe: Tax cuts for the wealthy, plus budget cuts for state programs, plus hostility to responsible governance equals Grover's Tub. Good governance was in Grover's view, the enemy—and destroying it was Grover's goal.

Government by and for people has been an American value ever since 1776. Abraham Lincoln embraced it as a cornerstone of the America’s democracy in his address at the battlefield in Gettysburg. He framed the Civil War as a fight to guarantee "government of the people, by the people and for the people."

Here in Texas, tax cuts are king. Over the last few sessions, reforms to school finance focused on reducing property taxes not better funding for public schools. In the end, school property tax rates were cut by 33%, the revenue base shifted to more regressive consumption taxes, and all new revenue was dedicated to more tax cuts—not schools. What’s going on here?

Now is the time to show that our nation is ready to lead once more. As John F. Kennedy once expressed, 'Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies.'

Gov. Rick Perry wants $524 million from the Legislature to lure companies to Texas, but he may reject $556 million in federal money for residents who’ve lost their jobs. How did our priorities get so out of whack?

With President Obama's signature on the latest Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) bill and potentially billions more in Children's Medicaid funds coming with a federal stimulus package, Texas must seize an opportunity to cover more children. It's not only our 1.5 million uninsured children who stand to gain. Simple math shows all of us would be better off with these children insured.

Much as Pakistan is fighting for survival against Islamic radicals, Mexico is waging a do-or-die battle with the world's most powerful drug cartels. Last year, some 6,000 people died in drug-related violence here, more than twice the number killed the previous year. The dead included several dozen who were beheaded, a chilling echo of the scare tactics used by Islamic radicals. Mexican drug gangs even have an unofficial religion: They worship La Santa Muerte, a Mexican version of the Grim Reaper.

Obama would pay for the expansion by trimming tax breaks for the wealthy and tightening payments to insurers, hospitals and physicians, according to a senior administration official. By first identifying a large pot of money to underwrite health care reform -- before laying out a proposal on who would be covered or how -- Obama hopes to signal his willingness to negotiate with Congress over the details of an eventual plan.

Soldiers who return from war with devastating brain injuries are on the minds of those who run the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine. The top administrator of the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center in El Paso on Wednesday said he has discussed a partnership with Beaumont Army Medical Center to develop a traumatic brain injury program.