Rose Delivers Critical Legislative Victories for All Texans

Special to Texas Metro News

Austin, TX – State Representative Toni Rose announces the successful passage of key legislation to strengthen protections for Texas children, improve access to healthcare, and enhance support services for vulnerable populations across the state. Importantly, Representative Rose was selected as one of the ten conferees to address the judicial pay gap, successfully negotiating the first pay raise for judges in over a decade.

“This legislative session’s victories reflect a continued commitment to ensure Texas families receive the care and support they deserve. Our work lowering prescription drug prices, improving summer food access for children, and supporting mothers struggling with addiction are among accomplishments that speak to my work to address real challenges facing communities. Texans expect us to make meaningful advancement in their quality of life,” said Representative Rose.

Representative Rose’s legislative achievements this session include:

• HB 2809: Requires the Department of Family and Protective Services to include youth suicide attempts in annual public reports, allowing the department to examine and guard against root causes of suicide to ensure greater accountability in  protecting at-risk youth.

• HB 109: Allows the state to designate and operate residential treatment facilities for children without placement (CWOP) in the conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS). CWOP youth experience placement difficulty due to behavioral challenges that conflict with family settings. In addition to bill passage, Representative Rose secured $35.2 Million in funding to ensure facility access statewide.

• HB 5155: Extends the Maternal Opioid Management (MOM) program in Harris County and expands the program to Dallas County. The successful MOM program provides specialized support for pregnant and postpartum women with opioid use disorder and their children. Through the budgeting process, Representative Rose secured $2.75 Million in funding to continue the program.

• HB 2402: Ensures that Texans gain access to lower cost prescription drugs through monthly fee-based discount membership programs by excluding such programs from usual and customary rate calculations. This measure helps maintain fair compensation for providers serving Medicaid patients while lowering drug costs.

• HB 5394: Prohibits single-source continuum contractors and child-placing agencies from imposing requirements beyond those established by law or state agency rules on relatives seeking custody of children in the foster care system.

• SB 227: Representative Rose served as the bill sponsor in the House of Representatives for The Charles Edward Barton Act, by Senator Royce West, which streamlines the application process for delayed birth certificates to help Texans born before 1971 obtain proper documentation, removing unnecessary barriers to accessing vital records.

• SB 1522: Representative Rose sponsored the bill on behalf of Senator Charles Perry, which modernizes regulations for continuing care facilities, improving consumer protections and updating oversight standards for senior living communities.

In addition to funding for children without placement residential facilities and the Maternal Opioid Management program, Representative Rose’s budget success includes:

• $60 Million for the Texas Summer EBT Program, to ensure Texas children who qualify for food assistance throughout the school year continue to receive nutrition benefits during critical summer months.

• $118 Million for the completion of the new Texas Behavioral Health Center to provide mental health services across the North Texas Region.

• $5 Million for the ongoing operation of the Judge Charles R. Rose Community Park.

• $13.2 Million for free and reduced lunch at Title 1 Schools across Texas.

• $5 Million for the operation of the Maternal Health Outcome Program pilot, which increases health services to women during pregnancy and just after birth to reduce severe obstetric complications in Dallas.

• $18 Million for gene and cell therapy research at UT Southwestern.  New breakthroughs in the fight against cancer resulted in CAR T-cell therapy, where a patient’s white blood cells are genetically modified to recognize and kill cancer cells. This research funding seeks to apply the CAR T approach to combat rare childhood and autoimmune diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, cystic fibrosis, and degenerative diseases that currently have no or very few treatment options.

Representative Toni Rose’s legislative portfolio reflects extensive collaboration with stakeholders, state agencies, healthcare providers, and advocates to develop practical solutions in hunger, childbirth, mental health, rare disease abatement, suicide prevention, prescription drug pricing, seniors, and those in the foster care system.

Representative Rose serves on the House Committees on Appropriations, Human Services, the Appropriations Subcommittee on Article II, and as Vice Chair of the Committee on Calendars.  Elected in 2012, Representative Rose represents District 110, which includes the diverse communities of Oak Cliff, Pleasant Grove, and Balch Springs.