United Methodist Womens Legislative Agenda 2013

There are more than 100,000 members of United Methodist Women in Texas. At their annual legislative conference, UMW members from all seven of Texas United Methodist Annual Conferences adopt a consensus legislative agenda reflecting their priority legislative concerns. United Methodist Women was established in 1865. United Methodist Women place particular emphasis on issues impacting the well-being of women, children and youth. Texas United Methodist Women affirm the dedication of every member of the Texas Legislature. We thank you for your service to our state and we look forward to thanking you for your good work in the 83rd legislative session. We particularly look forward to thanking you for your action on the following issues, which we believe are crucial to our states wellbeing:

Water
We support lawmakers as they begin to address Texas long-term water needs. We urge lawmakers to prioritize our states water infrastructure investments around the primary principle of fair access to water for all Texans. We support current proposals to begin funding the water plan. We acknowledge the interaction between water and energy resources and encourage lawmakers to plan comprehensively for our water and energy future.

Education
The Legislature should affirm its constitutional obligation to provide high quality public education for the benefit all of its citizens. Critical legislative actions include restoring cuts, funding enrollment growth, not allowing the flow of public money to private schools, limiting statewide assessments and exploring alternatives to testing.

Predatory Lending
The Legislature should build on the foundation of sensible regulation of payday and auto-title lending established in 2011, and eliminate the cycle of debt through strategies such as limiting rollovers, regulating fees and allowing partial payments.

Medicaid
The Legislature should extend Medicaid to adults under 138 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.

Criminal Justice and Mental Health

We call on legislators to guarantee humane treatment for all Texans caught up in the states criminal justice system, especially the most vulnerable, including women, children and youth. We strongly urge the Legislature to increase access to mental health, substance abuse treatment, rehabilitation, and re-entry programs for offenders. We are concerned about disproportionately punitive treatment including prolonged administrative segregation, and we urge legislators to reward prudence and wisdom in ticketing, sentencing and incarceration of juveniles.

For more information about United Methodist Women in Texas or this legislative agenda, contact any of the following UMW Social Action Coordinators:
Lori Stafford Judy Wiggins Frances Curry Lois Shaw Denise DuBois Mary Helen Gracia Darlene Alfred Rose Watson Beth Weems Pirtle Mary Alice Garza 214-649-2233 806-895-4648 432-940-4587 830-257-3980 979-575-4098 210-764-0522 254-624-4685 940-482-6744 972-243-7353 972-596-3534 lstaf@sbcglobal.net wigginsjudy54@yahoo.com jfcurry4586@gmail.com woodie123@windstream.net duboisdc@aol.com dralfred@earthlink.net rewatson@embarqmail.com bethsigns@att.net garzama@verizon.net