Moore County Journal

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Texas health officials on Friday told vaccine providers across the state that they could resume using the one-dose COVID-19 vaccine Johnson & Johnson vaccine in all adult recipients after a federal advisory panel recommended that it be reinstated. The recommendations comes 11 days after use of that particular vaccine was paused over a small number of reports of a rare but serious clotting side effect in recipients.

On Friday afternoon, the CDC advisory panel said that the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the clotting risk associated with the shot. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was expected to offer its official guidance mirroring the panel’s recommendations later Friday.

The news comes a day after state health officials said that a Texas woman who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine had been hospitalized with blood clots and whose condition was being investigated by the CDC as potentially connected to the vaccine. No other details were released.

CDC officials Friday reported 15 total cases reported of the clotting syndrome connected to the vaccines— all in women, mostly in those under 50. Three of them died. Nearly 8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that have been administered nationwide.

Some 616,000 Johnson & Johnson doses had been administered in Texas before the vaccine’s use was paused 11 days ago, said Imelda Garcia, associate commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services.

The CDC panel on Friday grappled with whether to include language in its recommendation warning women under age 50 that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine poses an increased risk to their age group of the clotting syndrome and that they have other vaccine options.

“This is an age group that is not at risk, that is getting this vaccine predominantly to save other people’s lives and morbidity, not their own, and I think we have a responsibility to be certain that they know this, and if they choose to be vaccinated with this anyhow, we want to respect that choice,” said Dr. Sarah Long, a panelist and professor of pediatrics at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia. “But I am very sorry that we haven’t chosen to put, up front, the knowledge that we have that this … is almost certainly related to the vaccine and there are [other] options.”

Neither the Pfizer nor Moderna two-dose regimens have been connected to the clotting side effect, CDC officials said Friday.

Ultimately, the panel voted 10-4 to leave it out the warning, with most on the panel agreeing that it could be confusing and that providers can inform recipients of the side effect. The new information that will be added to the vaccine’s emergency use authorization approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

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After months of not having enough COVID-19 vaccines to meet demand, Texas suddenly appears to have plenty of shots but not as many people lining up to receive them, even though more than three quarters of the state still isn’t fully vaccinated.

Almost 7 million Texans have been vaccinated against COVID-19 — more than 23% of the state’s population — and health officials say they are starting to see lower demand at public vaccination sites. Recent data show reported vaccine doses have decreased: The number of people who have gotten at least one shot in Texas grew by over 1 million during the week ending April 14; the following week the number dropped to about 660,000.

Across Texas, local leaders are trying to ramp up outreach efforts and fill more appointments. Houston’s FEMA hub at NRG Park is now offering walk-in slots, a shift from prior appointment-only requirements that kept some residents from getting early doses. The state will also be rolling out a TV campaign to boost vaccinations, Department of State Health Services spokesperson Chris Van Deusen told the Wall Street Journal.

Local health officials say efforts to vaccinate older Texans have been successful: As of April 21, nearly 60% of Texans age 65 and older have been fully vaccinated. Since the state opened vaccinations to all adults on March 29, around one-fifth of Texans between 16 to 49 years old — who make up the biggest proportion of eligible adults — have been fully vaccinated.

“It seems we’re getting to the point that most people eager to get vaccinated have gotten at least their first dose,” Imelda Garcia, associate commissioner of laboratory and infectious disease services for DSHS, said during a Thursday press conference. “The next phase will be about helping ensure that vaccine is more easily available to those folks who are not going to go as far out of their way.”

Nationally, vaccine supply may outpace demand within the next month, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health nonprofit.

Vaccination rates vary across Texas: most large urban and suburban counties, except for Tarrant County, are above the overall state rate in terms of the percentage of people who have received at least one dose. Along the border, a region that has been particularly hard hit by the pandemic, more than 40% of the population in many counties, including El Paso, Starr and Cameron, have gotten a dose — compared with 36% statewide.

In Starr County, Manuel Muniz, Rio Grande City’s fire chief and EMC, said vaccination rates have been slowing down for the past two weeks. Just over 40% of Starr County residents have been fully vaccinated, and Muniz said appointments have slowed over the last two weeks, with some sites only open once or twice a week. They’ve had to drive a few hundred unused doses back to the pickup location as well, he said.

Many county sites have been open to walk-ins for weeks, a change from the long waitlist they had during the first month of rollout, and are open to anyone in the Rio Grande Valley, Muniz said. Local officials continue to post hours and instructions on social media to make sure the process is understandable.

But in other small rural counties, the vaccination numbers are much lower: In roughly 50 of those counties, less than a quarter of the population have received a vaccine dose as of April 21.

Texas’ vaccination efforts are still missing people who have faced obstacles for months, said Catherine Troisi, an infectious disease epidemiologist with UTHealth School of Public Health in Houston. Some lack internet access or the computer skills to make an online appointment, while others lack transportation to reach a vaccine provider.

And Black and Hispanic Texans continue to be vaccinated at lower rates than whites, even as appointments become more available across the state.

Texas has been allocated 700,000 doses for next week, Garcia said, which is the lowest amount the state has received in the past month.

On April 13, the Centers for Disease Control temporarily suspended the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine out of “an abundance of caution” because of concerns about blood clots. Federal health investigators had identified 15 confirmed cases of the clotting syndrome and three deaths as of Thursday — all in women — out of nearly 8 million doses given. On Friday CDC officials said they are investigating nearly a dozen more possible cases.

Given that it was easier to store and distribute, the vaccine had been prioritized for harder to reach populations, Troisi said, and this pause impacted people experiencing homelessness and homebound people the most.

But the Johnson & Johnson pause also has made it more difficult to convince some people to get vaccinated at all. Marisa Gonzales, community outreach program manager for Dallas County Health and Human Services, organizes vaccination registration events and said that while her events had plenty of action before, only a handful of people signed up at her location in West Dallas on Thursday.

“Especially after Johnson & Johnson was paused, anybody who had any kind of reluctancy now really has [more] reluctancy,” Gonzales said. “A lot of people still don’t trust it.”

Troisi said Republicans consistently show lower intention to get the vaccine than Democrats and independents in Texas, according to a University of Texas/Texas Tribune survey.

“That’s actually increased since March,” Troisi said. “We used to talk about communities of color being hesitant. But in that case, it’s more barriers, it’s just harder for them to get to the place to be vaccinated.”

Muniz said Starr County’s recent slowdown can be partially attributed to the J&J shot being pulled — many people in the region are seasonal workers and prefer to get a single dose rather than two shots spaced weeks apart.

Experts say that this new stage of the vaccination process might require more tailored strategies.

“We need to start thinking about reaching out, really extending and doing other types of community clinics, whether it’s at smaller clinics, at churches, in other parts of the county, in rural areas, just again, making it easier to get [vaccines] to people,” said Kelly Craine, communications lead for the Waco McLennan County Public Health District.

In the Rio Grande Valley, Carlos Sanchez said that one of the groups that concern him are younger people, who might not have high mortality rates when they get infected, but still can be key in spreading the virus.

“Many are sitting on the fence, for others just right now it’s not a high priority for them,” said Sanchez, spokesperson for Hidalgo County. “We’re trying to figure out why or how we can reach those. I’m in the process of trying to organize a focus group of people in that demographic to get a sense of what we can do.”

Experts and county officials across the state stressed that now is the moment to vaccinate as many people as possible to avoid a new surge in cases as new, more contagious variants of the virus continue to spread. In Dallas, where less than a quarter of the population was fully vaccinated as of Wednesday, Marisa Gonzales said they “still have a tremendous amount of work to do.

“And I hope that people do their homework, I hope that they learn the facts, they learn the science about the vaccine as well as the virus, and to educate themselves and use that knowledge as power,” she said.

Staff writer Karen Brooks Harper contributed to this story.

Disclosure: UTHealth School of Public Health has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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On this week’s TribCast, Matthew talks to Cassi, Karen and Patrick about efforts to expand Medicaid in Texas, the state of permitless carry in the Senate and what a recent poll had to say about Matthew McConaughey’s chances of becoming governor.

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Advocates say the episode is a horrific example of a long-standing problem that hardly ever makes headlines: America’s criminal justice system too often fails to protect victims of domestic and family violence from their abusers.

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Army Spc. Vanessa Guillén’s murder at Fort Hood in Killeen last year exposed a pattern of violence and abuse against soldiers at the U.S. military’s largest active-duty base and sparked national outrage over federal officials’ handling of sexual harassment and noncombat deaths.

Guillén told her family she was being sexually harassed by several fellow soldiers at Fort Hood before she went missing, which happened one year ago Thursday. In the year since her death, lawmakers have filed bills aimed at strengthening responses to sexual harassment, and the military has launched investigations into the base’s culture. Fourteen U.S. Army leaders, including commanders and other leaders at Fort Hood, were fired or suspended.

But even as the U.S. Army rolls out new policies, including some announced last week, her family, advocates and lawmakers are still calling for more changes to how military officials respond to sexual harassment and violence against soldiers.

“My frustration, my anger is the same, because it’s not fair my sister was murdered the way she was,” Guillén’s 17-year-old sister, Lupe Guillén, said at a press conference Tuesday. “She had to be murdered for everyone to realize all of these issues. … This has happened for decades.”

The secretary of the army acknowledged during a press briefing in August that the base had “the most cases for sexual assault and harassment and murders for our entire formation of the U.S. Army.” At least 159 Fort Hood soldiers died out of combat between 2016 and last year, including seven homicides and 71 suicides, according to an analysis by The New York Times.

Vanessa Guillén was 20 years old when she was bludgeoned to death in an armory room where she worked. Her body was carried away, mutilated and buried in a shallow grave nearby. It took weeks for investigators to find her body.

Aaron Robinson, who investigators allege killed Guillén, fled Fort Hood and killed himself when police confronted him. His girlfriend, Cecily Aguilar, faces a charge of conspiracy to tamper with evidence, but no official court date has been set.

Guillén’s family said she hadn’t reported the sexual harassment from her fellow soldiers out of fear of retaliation. The Army’s investigators said they found no evidence of sexual harassment.

Advocates say that the military creates a siloed environment that allows sexual harassment and sexual violence to occur, many times unnoticed, and often unreported. And when there are reporter, the military itself investigates them.

“If you are sexually assaulted as a service member, you cannot just leave. You cannot just quit your job and leave, and so there’s a level of power and control that exists within this structure that happens nowhere else,” said Amy Franck, founder of Never Alone, an advocacy group working to end sexual harassment in the military. “They have the ability to punish you. They own you 24/7. It’s like a bad domestic violence relationship.”

In response to Guillén’s death, the U.S. Army appointed an independent board to investigate sexual harassment claims at Fort Hood. The board came up with a 136-page report with recommendations. The Army has committed to adopting them all and announced last week several of the changes it has made so far.

“We have significant work to do to regain our Soldiers’ trust in our sexual harassment and sexual assault prevention program,” A U.S. Army spokesperson told The Texas Tribune in a statement. “We are working to ensure that all Soldiers are provided with a safe, professional environment and that they are empowered to raise any allegations of sexual assault or sexual harassment and be treated with dignity and respect throughout the process.”

The Army is restructuring its criminal investigation command, as well as redesigning its sexual harassment and assault response and prevention program as part of an initial swath of adopted changes. Officials have updated policies to require full investigations of off-post soldier drug overdoses, including of the source of the drugs, and investigations of all suspected solider deaths by suicide. Last year, the Army updated guidance on how to respond when a soldier goes missing.

Other changes proposed by the committee are specific to Fort Hood — requiring changes to improve the climate and requiring regular welfare checks. The committee said officials needed to spring into action during the “critical first 24 hours” when a soldier is absent — something officials were criticized for after lacking urgency in their search for Guillén when she went missing.

The U.S. military overall has also faced patterns of sexual abuse within its ranks. According to a 2015 RAND analysis, requested by the military, 15% of women and 2% of men said they were sexually assaulted at least once since joining the service.

“This issue is probably our greatest threat to national security,” said retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Robert D. Shadley, a board member of Never Alone. “It’s not China. It’s not Russia. It is the United States military itself.”

Retired Air Force Col. Don Christensen, a former chief prosecutor of the United States Air Force, serves as the president of Protect Our Defenders, an advocacy group for sexual assault victims. He said many of the changes the military is rolling out should have happened years ago and he’s glad they’re being adopted.

“The sexual assault problems are a cultural problem. It’s a lack of faith in the process problem. It’s a lack of accountability problem,” he said.

Franck said adopting the recommendations is not enough. There needs to be systemic change, she said.

Until there is outside accountability and transparency, sexual harassment and violence will continue unchecked, Franck said. The changes announced so far detract from the real issues, and some are marketing-based initiatives, she said. Real systemic change is needed to end the pattern of violence.

U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, introduced the I Am Vanessa Guillén Act of 2020 last year, which would create a confidential reporting system for sexual harassment in the military and explicitly list sexual harassment as a crime in the military law constitution, the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

It would also require the Secretary of Defense to establish a process so service members can lodge confidential complaints and would move legal decisions outside the military chain of command to a new outside office in order to add external accountability.

But the bill hasn’t gained much traction since last year. The Texas House voted unanimously Wednesday in passing a resolution to urge the U.S. Congress to take action on the bill.

State Sen. César Blanco, D-El Paso, also introduced Senate Bill 623, which aims to protect Texas military members — the Texas Army National Guard, the Texas Air National Guard and the Texas State Guard — from sexual assault. It establishes a state sexual offense prevention and response program to independently investigate reported assaults, as well as provide recovery for victims. On Tuesday, Blanco announced the state legislation would be renamed the Vanessa Guillén Act.

“I served in the military active duty for six years, and I’ve seen firsthand the culture in the military fails to protect women and men from sexual assault in the military,” Blanco said Tuesday. “While the Texas Legislature does not have jurisdiction over the United States military, [it] does have the largest state military forces in the entire county. And we can lead by example.”

The bill passed in the Texas Senate and awaits action in the Texas House. Texas lawmakers are also seeking to memorialize Guillén by naming part of a highway after her and designating her birthday, Sept. 30, as Vanessa Guillén Day in the state.

“For a year, our community has been calling for change,” said state Rep. Christina Morales, D-Houston, on Tuesday, noting that Guillén was one of her constituents. “For a year, Vanessa Guillén’s family has been calling for change. Our community is strong and our resilience unwavering. We will not stop calling, marching and mobilizing until there is real change. We will always remember Vanessa Guillén.”

Disclosure: The New York Times has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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For seven years, Debbie Bush has fought to make those in power see the injustice she sees.

In 2014, her nephew was killed by an off-duty San Antonio police officer at the age of 23. Marquise Jones was shot in the back running from the scene of a fender bender in a restaurant drive-thru lane. The officer said Jones had a gun — other witnesses say he didn’t. The officer was cleared of wrongdoing and remains on the force.

Since then, Bush has rallied. She has held up others who suddenly found themselves with similar heartache. And she has pleaded with local and state policymakers to change a system that repeatedly results in police using violence against Black people.

“Every time there’s another killing anywhere across this country, it opens up wounds for all of us,” she said at a small rally at the Texas Capitol in March. “We’re dying every day in these streets from the police, and nothing is being done to the police.”

Recently, her resolve was dwindling. After seven years, it still didn’t feel like anyone was listening.

Despite a newly revived national movement against police brutality and racial injustice, she watched as more and more reports of police violence against Black and Hispanic people battered the news cycles. At the same time, Texas’ George Floyd Act, named for the Black man whose in-custody death in Minneapolis sparked the movement last summer, had stalled in the state Legislature.

“It made me want to give up,” she said haltingly Monday, pausing to release quiet sobs.

The next day, the world watched as Derek Chauvin, the officer who killed Floyd, was found guilty of murder. And Bush and other police reform activists felt the ground shift underneath their feet.

“Now that the nation has seen what the nation has seen and the jury has spoken, hopefully that means to the state what it means to the rest of the world,” said Gary Bledsoe, president of the NAACP of Texas.

Bledsoe hopes the historic verdict will propel forward the state’s major reform bill as well as other measures tackling police behavior and accountability in the final weeks of the legislative session. State Rep. Senfronia Thompson, a Houston Democrat who authored the George Floyd Act, said in a statement Tuesday she will continue to fight for House Bill 88.

Watching the judge read out the guilty verdicts Tuesday relit a fire in Bush and others advocating for Texas’ police reform legislation.

“If this doesn’t push it, we don’t know what will,” she said.

The message has gotten through to at least some in the Texas Capitol. State Sen. Royce West, a Dallas Democrat, said he is laser-focused on social justice issues and law enforcement accountability this legislative session.

Since 2016, Texas law enforcement agencies reported more than 900 shootings by police. Of those shot, 28% were Black. During traffic stops that resulted in police use of force last year, 26% of the people were Black. In Texas, 12% of the population is Black.

Recently publicized police violence against Black and Hispanic people has only strengthened the senator’s call.

West condemned the pepper-spraying and force used on Caron Nazario, an Army second lieutenant in Virginia, at a traffic stop. He denounced Daunte Wright’s killing in Minnesota when a veteran officer said she mistook her Taser for a gun. This month, video was also released of Chicago police shooting and killing 13-year-old Adam Toledo and officers fatally shooting 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio.

Wright, Toledo and Bryant were all killed as Chauvin stood trial for Floyd’s death.

“That’s happening in 2021,” West said last week. “Things are getting better? No, things are getting worse.”

Moving parts

Texas’ George Floyd Act, like reform legislation filed in many other states and at the national level, includes measures requiring officers to intervene if another is using excessive force, banning chokeholds and implementing more disciplinary practices for officer misconduct.

Last month, a House committee heard hours of testimony on HB 88 — largely from supporters. But police union officials pushed back on many provisions, especially one that would remove police officers’ shield against lawsuits when they’re accused of violating someone’s state constitutional rights. Called qualified immunity, this legal shield has also been a sticking point in other states’ legislatures.

Since then, the bill has stagnated, idling in the House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee.

State Rep. James White, the only Republican in the Texas Legislative Black Caucus and chair of the committee, said Monday that lawmakers are still working behind the scenes, but he acknowledged HB 88 might not pass. Instead, lawmakers are focusing on some of the numerous standalone bills Thompson also filed to address specific reforms, he said.

For example, his committee approved Thompson’s House Bill 830 last week, a bill that targets one provision of the George Floyd Act that has been pushed for years — limiting officers’ ability to arrest people for traffic offenses that at most would result in a fine. Other pieces of the omnibus bill — requiring officer disciplinary guidelines and corroboration of undercover police testimony — have been approved piecemeal by House committees led by Democrats.

The full chamber has also passed a bill to bar reality television crews from pairing with law enforcement patrols, White noted. The bill honors Javier Ambler, a Black man who died after Williamson County sheriff deputies — with video crews from a reality TV show riding along — chased him because they said Ambler didn’t properly dim his headlights, and then repeatedly tased him.

“They’ve lost people on the front lines of this issue, and we’re going to continue to chip away,” White said, referring to Bush and other family members. “You also have to think about the front line law enforcement, the peace officers.”

Police union officials opposed to proposed changes to police tactics and accountability argue that Chauvin’s verdict is proof that accountability already exists. On Wednesday, Chris Jones with the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas said at a legislative hearing that some reform efforts would erode due process.

“You all have a choice on two directions to go: to enact measures that are punitive to officers who are doing the job that will encourage them to leave and do something else, such as taking away qualified immunity,” he said. “The other option is: Do we pass legislation that bolsters the training and the hiring qualifications so we have the best people doing this job?”

The Senate has begun to move targeted reform bills that are supported by police unions. The bills, approved by a committee last week, would restrict police chokeholds, require officers to intervene if another is using illegal and unreasonable force, and instruct officers to provide first aid and call ambulances for injured people. The full chamber unanimously approved the latter two Thursday, sending them to the House.

Though narrow in focus, Bledsoe with the NAACP still deems these bills essential and potentially life-saving. In the Rio Grande Valley last year, Jorge Gonzalez Zuniga died months after sheriff deputies beat him, tased him, and knelt on his neck.

“One thing you learn about a legislative process, especially when you represent people who are in need, you have to take what you get,” Bledsoe said.

“It has to stop”

For grieving families, it’s still not enough.

Brenda Ramos found herself unwillingly fused to Bush’s cause one year ago, when an Austin police officer shot and killed her son while he was driving away from police. In summer protests, demonstrators in Texas’ capital city shouted Michael Ramos’ name alongside Floyd’s in demands for justice.

On Monday, days before the anniversary of her son’s death, tears steadily streamed down Brenda Ramos’s face. She sat in an orange camping chair in the shade of a moss-covered tree, comforted to be near Michael’s grave. She noted her appreciation for Floyd’s relatives, one of whom had recently mentioned her son in his calls for change.

“People need to get justice,” she said, her gaze focused on flowers and photos marking the gravestone she will one day share with her son. “They can’t be killing people like this all the time.”

Last month, Officer Christopher Taylor was indicted on a murder charge in Ramos’ death. The same day, lawmakers announced legislation in Ramos’ name.

The legislation would more easily make public body camera footage of fatal police encounters, implement statewide policy and training guidelines on deescalation tactics, and give more power to state regulators to suspend or revoke officer licenses. The Mike Ramos Act was first heard by White’s committee Wednesday, a day after Chauvin’s verdict. It was left pending.

Though her standalone measures were winding through the Legislature during Chauvin’s trial, Thompson said the guilty verdict Tuesday gives more incentive to pass all of the provisions in the George Floyd Act.

“While we praise this verdict, we must also give pause, because we all know it could have just as easily gone the other way,” she said in a statement Tuesday. “Too many crimes have gone unanswered, too many deaths without justice.”

Thinking of the most recent publicized cases of police shootings, Brenda Ramos’ voice cracked in exasperation.

“That’s what I’m saying, it has to stop,” she said. “This bill has to go through, it has to go through. So nobody, no mother, will have to go through this.

“It’s just going to keep on happening unless we put a stop to this.”

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Two years after the Texas prison system barred all spiritual advisers from the state’s death chamber, the agency has reversed course.

On Wednesday, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice adopted a new execution protocol that allows those facing lethal injection to be with a spiritual adviser of their choosing when they die. The policy change follows ongoing legal fights over religious advisers’ access to the execution chamber.

Before 2019, the department allowed only chaplains employed by TDCJ into the execution chamber, where the adviser would often pray and rest a hand on the prisoner’s leg. But the agency only employed Christian and Muslim advisers. When a Buddhist inmate, Patrick Murphy, was told his adviser would not be allowed in the room with him, he argued it was religious discrimination. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed, halting the execution.

Rather than allowing spiritual advisers into the chamber who were not on staff, however, prison officials opted to take the advice of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. They banned chaplains of any religion from entering the chamber, citing security concerns. Chaplains and ministers could instead stand in the small adjacent rooms where friends and family of the murder victims and prisoners, as well as media, gather.

Then, last June, the U.S. Supreme Court stopped another Texas execution because of the new policy. Ruben Gutierrez argued the ban on advisers violated his religious freedoms. The high court again took note, ordering lower courts to determine “whether serious security problems would result if a prisoner facing execution is permitted to choose the spiritual adviser the prisoner wishes to have in his immediate presence during the execution.”

TDCJ’s new policy allows those on death row to have their personal religious advisers stay with them as they are executed, provided they first are verified and pass a background check.

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After initially opposing it, Sen. Ted Cruz voted in favor of a Senate bill that aims to combat hate crimes against Asian Americans, which overwhelmingly passed the Senate through a bipartisan 94-1 vote Thursday.

In a previous statement to The Texas Tribune, Cruz lambasted the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which was introduced into Congress by U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, and U.S. Rep. Grace Meng, D-New York, calling it “a Democratic messaging vehicle designed to push the demonstrably false idea that it is somehow racist to acknowledge that Covid-19 originated in Wuhan, China.”

A Cruz spokesperson Thursday said he ultimately decided to support the bill during the final vote because of an amendment added by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in cooperation with Hirono.

“While it was unfortunate that Senate Democrats blocked Sen. Cruz’s amendment to fight discrimination against Asian Americans in higher education, Sen. Cruz believes the adoption of Sen. Collins’ language made substantial improvements to this legislation and so he voted in support of the final proposal,” the spokesperson told the Tribune in an email.

Despite several failed Republican attempts to amend the bill, Hirono and Collins reached an agreement to modify the bill’s language “to broaden bipartisan support while retaining the purpose of the bill,” according to Hirono’s office.

Before it was passed, Cruz and Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, tried to amend the bill to “prohibit Federal funding for any institution of higher learning that discriminates against Asian Americans in recruitment, applicant review and admissions,” which was narrowly rejected in a 49-48 vote. It was among other unsuccessful Republican-led efforts to amend the bill.

Cruz previously accused Democrats of not taking racism seriously because they didn’t call out the U.S. Department of Justice for withdrawing its Trump-era affirmative action lawsuit against Yale University for allegedly discriminating against Asian American and white applicants through race-based admission quotas. The lawsuit was dropped in February after President Joe Biden took office.

In a joint statement, the two senators called the rejection of their amendment “an unbelievably cynical move.”

“Despite their calls to end racism, it is clear Democrats are only paying lip service to fighting discrimination against Asian Americans and will allow targeted discrimination against them to continue at America’s universities and colleges,” they said in the statement.

In response, Hirono said racial discrimination in higher education is already illegal and called the Cruz-Kennedy amendment a “transparent and cynical attack” on university policies that aim to promote diverse student bodies, according to Politico.

If signed into law, the bill would expedite the processing of hate crimes by assigning an employee at the Justice Department for that task. The Hirono-Collins amendment extended the amount of time the department has in designating the official to oversee that review from one day to seven.

The bill would also issue guidance to local law enforcement officials on making hate crime reporting more efficient through online reporting, which would be available in multiple languages. Additionally, the bill would expand “public education campaigns aimed at raising awareness of hate crimes and reaching victims.”

Another key aspect of the bill is its plan to issue guidance that would be aimed at raising awareness of hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the amended bill. Former President Donald Trump regularly called COVID-19 “the China virus” while crimes against Asian Americans surged since the dawn of the pandemic in March 2020.

In San Antonio, an Asian restaurant was vandalized with anti-Asian racial slurs, and in Midland, an Asian American family was stabbed at a Sam’s Club, according to WFAA.

According to Stop AAPI Hate, an organization that tracks Asian American discrimination, there were 103 incidents in Texas from March 19, 2020, to Feb. 28, 2021, which was among nearly 3,800 nationwide.

The U.S. House will eventually take up the bill, where it is expected to pass because of the Democratic majority.

“Today’s historic, bipartisan vote on the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act sends a powerful message of solidarity to the AAPI community—that the United States Senate rejects anti-Asian hate. Now, I urge the House to swiftly pass this legislation so the bill can go to President Biden to sign into law,” Hirono said in a written statement.

Disclosure: Politico has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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The Texas House on Thursday rejected an attempt to direct the governor and state health officials to use billions in federal dollars to expand health care coverage for uninsured Texans, including working poor who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford their own health insurance.

On a vote of 80-68, lawmakers voted down the proposal, which was floated as a two-page amendment to the state budget on Thursday.

The debate, which was highly anticipated by advocates of expanding coverage for uninsured Texans, was expected to be heated and drawn out. It lasted less than 20 minutes.

Proponents said the proposal would have let Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission design a program that falls in line with Texas’ conservative values — while reducing the number of uninsured people in the state.

At least one opponent said it was a back door to expanding Medicaid, which Texas conservatives have strongly resisted.

Passage of the amendment would have indeed opened the door to Medicaid expansion if that’s what Abbott or the HHSC proposed, but it would have also allowed the state to instead use federal funds earmarked for Medicaid expansion to create a program unique to Texas to cover some of Texas’ estimated 5 million uninsured people.

The Texas Legislature has declined to pass any broad expansion of state and federal health care coverage for uninsured Texans since the Affordable Care Act of 2010 required states to expand Medicaid — a provision that was later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Since then, Texas lawmakers have occasionally debated Medicaid expansion during budget votes, but the state has resisted expanding the program, while 38 other states have done it in some form.

State Rep. Garnet Coleman, a Houston Democrat who sponsored the amendment, said it wouldn’t force the state to expand traditional Medicaid but would direct Abbott and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to negotiate a federal funding agreement, known as a 1115 demonstration waiver, to create a plan that would cover more uninsured Texans, including those who would qualify for coverage under a traditional Medicaid expansion plan.

The resulting plan could have been a traditional expansion of Medicaid to cover adults who earn up to a certain amount, or a “look-alike” that combines state and federal funds to create a state program that accomplishes a similar goal, Coleman said.

Such state-crafted plans have been passed in several states, mainly conservative states like Indiana and Ohio.

“I would like for us to expand traditional Medicaid in the optional way that the ACA says you can do it,” Coleman said on the House floor. “But we can’t do that. And we know that … That is not what this amendment does.”

Rep. Richard Peña Raymond, D-Laredo, said the idea “puts Texas in the driver’s seat, and really Gov. Abbott in the driver’s seat” instead of forcing their hand or pushing through a program unpopular with conservatives.

But Republican state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, the only House member to speak against the bill during Thursday’s debate, said that creating a new health care program — Medicaid or otherwise — is far too complicated an endeavor to tackle in a two-page amendment and cautioned that it in fact looked like a way to expand Medicaid without a public hearing or extended floor debate.

“This topic is incredibly important, it’s complex, and frankly, it’s not appropriately handled in this amendment,” Capriglione said.

House Democrats, a handful of Republicans, and health care advocates, as well as nearly 200 groups and community leaders across Texas, still have some hope for House Bill 3871 by state Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Carrollton. That bill creates the “Live Well Texas” plan that uses a 1115 waiver to capture the federal dollars and expand Medicaid eligibility, and it includes incentives for people to continue working as well as increases in Medicaid reimbursements to attract more doctors to the program.

The bill has 76 House sponsors, nine of whom are Republicans, giving it enough support to pass the House. But it has been stuck in the GOP-led House Human Services Committee since March, waiting on a hearing that becomes increasingly less likely as the Texas Legislature barrels toward its final days at the end of May.

Only one of the Republican sponsors of HB 3871 voted for the Coleman amendment.

Thursday’s vote comes as the Biden Administration offers billions in federal incentives to Texas to join 38 other states in expanding the state-run Medicaid program to include any adults who earn up to 138% of the federal poverty level — or about $3,000 a month for a family of four.

Currently, people with disabilities and adults with children can only qualify for Medicaid in Texas if they earn $300 per month or less for a family of four, or $150 per month or less for an individual. Adults without disabilities or dependent children do not qualify, no matter how little they earn.

Children can qualify if their parents earn up to 200% of the poverty level depending on the child’s age — well above the threshold for adults. About 4.2 million Texans are currently covered by Medicaid, including more than 3 million children; most of those children have parents who earn too much to be covered themselves.

With 18% of its residents lacking health coverage, Texas has the highest rate of uninsured residents in the nation, and many are concentrated in the Panhandle and the Texas-Mexico border. Three out of four of them are people of color. And many of them don’t qualify for subsidies in the state’s health care marketplace, either, because they don’t earn more than the federal poverty level, which is about $1,100 per month for an individual.

About 1.4 million more Texans would become eligible for Medicaid coverage if the state were to expand its program and about 75% of them would be people of color, according to a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Staff writer Cassandra Pollock contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune: Read More

WASHINGTON – A bipartisan group of three Texas lawmakers — U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, and U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio — teamed up with an Arizona Democrat, U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, on Thursday to roll out legislation they hope will ease the strain on federal resources near the U.S-Mexico border.

The two senators unveiled their proposal on Thursday afternoon, saying their immediate goal with the legislation is to relieve pressure at the processing centers that are overwhelmed with migrants.

“The most immediate problem is our inability just to process the sheer number of people coming across the border,” Cornyn said.

“If the administration is looking for some solutions, some ideas, we’d like to help by presenting some of our thoughts and ideas and certainly build from there,” he added. “This isn’t comprehensive immigration reform. This is targeted to deal with this periodic surge of humanity that is overwhelming our capacity to deal with it, but there’s a lot more we need to do I believe in the immigration space.”

In its current form, the legislation would establish four new centers to process migrants. Sinema told reporters that the onus on where to locate those facilities would fall on the Biden administration. Other provisions would include expanding and improving legal and translating services in asylum cases, focusing on protections for unaccompanied children to eliminate placement with sex offenders and child abusers, and increasing the number of judges, asylum officers, ICE staff and Customs and Border Patrol workers near the border.

The bill would also aim to make the asylum ruling process more efficient, while, per a news release “ensuring fairness in proceedings through provisions to protect access to counsel, language translation services, and legal orientations.” Additionally, the bill would speed up the time it takes to process asylum claims, which now can take two to three years. The logic behind that priority is that it would cut down the time a migrant with weak asylum claims might spend in the United States awaiting a ruling, and the dangerous trip to the American border might not be as appealing.

The nation’s southern border with Mexico has experienced a surge of migrant crossings in recent months. March saw a record number of migrants arriving, with a higher-than-usual share of people who crossed the border being unaccompanied minors. Federal facilities to house the migrants have been overwhelmed, raising concerns that the Biden administration was not prepared for the increase.

Sinema, who is in her first term, said she and Cornyn have established a productive relationship over the last two years while working together on water and border issues. Cornyn said she intends to travel to the Texas border, and he is anxious to learn more about the Arizona border circumstances.

Both carry unique power in their chamber. Sinema has postured herself as a moderate Democrat who can be consequential in otherwise party-line votes. Cornyn, meanwhile, is a former Republican whip and a close ally of U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“I am encouraged that we have bipartisan support for these common sense solutions from lawmakers in the House and the Senate,” she said.

The two Texans on the House side, Cuellar and Gonzales, will introduce a companion bill.

Cuellar, a senior Democrat on the committee that oversees spending, said he would leverage his position to push for the bill.

“As the Vice Chair of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Appropriations, I am committed to supporting the brave men and women who protect our borders, the border communities who provide humanitarian relief, and the children and families determined to migrate to our country,” he said in a news release.

Gonzales, a freshman who represents the border stretching from the outskirts of El Paso to north of Cuellar’s Laredo-based district, would serve as the point man on the bill among House Republicans.

“To restore order, Congress must enact commonsense measures that relieve the bottlenecks in our immigration system and allow our DHS agents to focus on their national security responsibilities,” he said in the news release.