Texas Dental Hygienists' Association

Legislative Session Wrap Up

 

Our 2018-2019 Legislative session has officially come to an end. A special thank you to all of the hygienists and dentists that came forward to help improve pain management in the dental office and access to care.  This session TDHA supported two pieces of legislation local anesthesia and teledentistry.

    Our first piece of legislation was sponsored by Representative Stephanie Klick and Senator Jose Rodriguez.  In the House of Representatives we were referred to the Public Health committee chaired by Representative Senfronia Thompson.  Our local anesthesia legislation was referred to a subcommittee. Once a piece of legislation gets passed on to a subcommittee it is very difficult to get out of a subcommittee but we continued to work hard for you! After being granted a hearing with an overwhelming presentation of facts, our bill was never called for a vote by the chair.  This caused our bill to stall and die in committee. In the state Senate, our bill was referred to the Health and Human Services committee. Chairman Lois Kolkhorst never called our bill for a hearing. This caused our bill to die in the senate.

 

Our second piece of legislation was teledentistry.  The teledentistry piece of legislation was sponsored by Representative Drew Springer and Senator Charles Perry, Pete Flores, Eddie Lucio Jr, and Kel Seliger   We were granted a hearing in the senate Health and Human Services committee chaired by Lois Kolkhorst. After negotiations with TDA and our lobbyist Stephanie’s hard work our teledentistry legislation  was voted out of committee unanimously. The legislation unfortunately was not recognized by Lt Governor Dan Patrick and the legislation died. 

 

Thank you again to all of the individuals who came to testify, contacted legislators, and helped with our 2018-2019 legislative session. 

 

Now that our active session has ended, our work is not done.  Currently, campaigns are starting and legislators are available to discuss our pieces of legislation.  Now is a great time to start building that relationship with who represents you at the state level. Relationships matter and they represent you!  If you have any questions, please contact Legislative Director Janessa Bock or GAC co- chair Annette Smith.