A Program of The Association of Former Students

Howdy, Advocates!

The second half of 2021 is starting with a blaze of activity across many levels – at The Association of Former Students, the Texas Capitol, and Washington, D.C.!

At the forefront of that activity is the start of the first Special Session of the 87th Legislative Session, which began at 10 a.m. on Thursday, July 8.

In this newsletter, we're providing an overview of how Texas A&M fared in the regular session. The session started with an expected deficit of nearly $1 billion compared with the 86th Legislative Session, meaning that Texas A&M would be facing even more competition than usual for its share of limited resources.

This made the efforts of you, our Aggie Advocates, even more important! For the 87th Legislative Session, the Texas A&M Advocacy Network put forth a number of requests for help from our Aggie Advocates – and you delivered!

First, you helped us execute a highly-successful, all-virtual Orange and Maroon Legislative Day (OMLD), along with the University of Texas at Austin. OMLD 2021 brought challenges that we hope to never face again – namely, a statewide electricity crisis impacting our ability to take part in the virtual meetings. Despite this and other variances from our usual OMLD, however, Aggie Advocates ensured that this year's event was just as impactful and demonstrated the importance of investing in higher education in Texas.

For our second phase of advocacy in the 87th Legislative Session, we implemented a new advocacy platform, CongressWeb, to put out Calls to Action. In the first utilizations of this new platform, the Calls to Action were kept to small audiences and mostly limited to the constituents of key legislators on specific bills. We are excited to bring more opportunities for our Aggie Advocates to quickly and easily contact their elected officials in support of Texas A&M.

We thank you for your willingess to advocate for The Association of Former Students and Texas A&M University. You are an integral part of our mission to:

Strengthen The Association of Former Students
Promote the interests and welfare of Texas A&M University
Perpetuate ties of affection and esteem formed in university or college days
Serve the student body

Your time and efforts advocating for Texas A&M thus far in 2021 truly made a difference! As always, please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or if we can be of any assistance to you. We look forward to continuing our efforts in the first special session, and beyond. Gig 'em!

In the Aggie Spirit,

Miranda Henderson '09

Texas' Biennium Budget Signed Into Law

Governor Greg Abbott signed SB 1, the state's biennium budget for 2022-23, into law on Friday, June 18. Outside of the governor's well-publicized veto of Article X, the budget was signed into law with no other line-item vetoes. Compared with the 2020-21 biennium budget of approximately $250 billion, SB 1 provides a slightly reduced budget of $248 billion.

Texas A&M main campus, however, saw an increase of $53 million in general revenue funds from the last biennium. This includes funds from a late infusion of nearly half a billion, statewide, in formula funding to account for enrollment growth at Texas A&M and other public universities. This was a major priority for Texas A&M, first brought forth by our Advocates in OMLD 2021!

In the first use of our new advocacy platform, CongressWeb, Advocates residing in the districts of the 10 legislators appointed to the SB 1 Conference Committee were mobilized in May to help further emphasize this need. Through the platform, Advocates were able to quickly and easily send messages in support of this important priority directly to the legislators.

Additional line-items in the budget for Texas A&M included funds for:

Texas A&M University at Galveston – an increase of $1.4 million in general revenue funds from the last biennium. An additional $45 million was provided for the Texas A&M Maritime Academy for the dock and infrastructure improvements needed to accept a new, larger training vessel.
Texas A&M Health Science Center – an increase of $14 million in general revenue funds, including mission-specific funding and funding for the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) program. This program provides specialized training for nurses serving our state's most vulnerable patients.

New Advocacy Platform

In April, the Texas A&M Advocacy Network rolled out its new advocacy platform, powered through CongressWeb. Check it out at tx.ag/Advocate!

This new platform will be a resource where Advocates can:

See any current Calls to Action (based on district) and easily send messages to their legislator;
Obtain information on upcoming elections;
Compose their own messages to representatives and connect with them via social media;
Learn more about pending legislation of interest to Texas A&M;
And more!

There are no Calls to Action at this time, but we invite you to familiarize yourself with the platform. Pictured below is a sample Call to Action.

Special Session Agenda Announced

On July 7, Governor Abbott announced the agenda of items for the first special session. Per the Texas Constitution, in a special session legislators may only consider bills relating to these topics.

Find the full agenda on the governor's website.

Redistricting Still on the Horizon

Close followers of state and federal legislative issues might have noticed a key item not included in the first special session. Using the population data from the 2020 Census, the Texas Legislature will be required to undergo the complex task of redistricting to determine the boundaries of Texas' congressional and state House/Senate districts.

Preliminary population data released by the U.S. Census Bureau revealed that Texas will gain two additional federal representatives, to keep up with the state's growing population. The detailed data of how this population is geographically distributed, however, will not be available until later in the year. A special session to address this task is expected to be convened in the fall.

In preparation for this important function, the House and Senate committees have already been named – and the Aggie Network is well-represented! We thank Representatives Ryan Guillen ’00, Brooks Landgraf ’03, and Andrew Murr ’99, along with Senator Paul Bettencourt ’80, for their work on these committees, and look forward to watching this process unfold.

Learn more about Texas' redistricting process here.

Legislative Retirements

Every election brings some new faces to the Texas Legislature and the Texas delegation in Congress. A few long-standing members of their legislative bodies have already announced plans to not seek re-elections, creating many open seats to be filled for the 2023-24 terms.

On July 5, Texas Senator Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound) announced she will not seek re-election to Senate District 12. Serving in the Texas Senate since 1993, Senator Nelson has been a fixture of the Senate Finance Committee, serving as its chair for the last four legislative sessions.

The Senate Finance Committee and its House counterpart, Appropriations, are responsible for the state's biennium budget. These committees determine the funds Texas A&M and other public universities receive from the state. While she is not an Aggie, Senator Nelson has been a great ally for Texas A&M; we thank her for her service to our state and wish her the best in her next chapter!

***

On the federal side, U.S. Representative Kevin Brady (R-The Woodlands) announced his plans to retire from the House of Representatives at the end of this term. First elected to the 8th Congressional District of Texas in 1996, Representative Brady is one of the most senior members of the Texas delegation. He has served as the chair of the powerful House Ways & Means Committee since 2015. This committee oversees all federal tax, tariff, and revenue-raising policy.

Earlier in the year, U.S. Representative Filemon Vela (D-Brownsville) also announced his upcoming retirement from the House of Representatives. Representative Vela will have served in the House for 10 years at the conclusion of his current term, after first being elected in 2012. He is particularly versed in issues relating to agriculture and defense, serving as a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Agriculture Committee, where he also served a term as vice chair.

Representative Vela and Representative Brady have both been helpful partners to Texas A&M on policy issues, as well as employers to numerous Texas A&M full-time staff and interns. We give them particular thanks for their past support of the Texas A&M Agricultural and Natural Resources Policy program and the Public Policy Internship Program, where many Aggies have launched their careers in public service in our nation's capital.

The Texas A&M Advocacy Network is one of the many programs supported by donors to The Association of Former Students.
Make a gift today.

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The Association of Former Students
505 George Bush Drive
College Station, TX 77840 United States

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