Army of Advocates

The 2020 Census is essential for our democracy.  It will determine how many representatives Texas will have in Congress; and it is used by the federal government to allocate funds to the state for a range of essential federal programs valued at more than $59 billion a year.  The Census is also used by businesses […]

House Bill 2697 went into effect on September 1, 2019.  A bill that you, our Army of Advocates, helped support and get passed!  It added clarity to the criminal definition of identity theft in Texas to ensure that it covers coerced debt and financial abuse, which often occur in domestic violence situations.  Coerced debts – […]

The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) was created in 2009 and authorized $3 billion in general obligation bonds to provide grants for cancer research, prevention and control programs in Texas. In that last 10 years,  CPRIT has issued $2.26 billion in grants. In 2019 alone, $48 million went to research and prevention […]

9/03/2019 In June 2019, $383.4 million in SNAP benefits was distributed in Texas to approximately 1.5 million people – an average of $260 per case.  In the following month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) published a proposed rule that would tighten the requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program […]

8/08/2019 As promised in our last Army report, today we are talking about sex. Comprehensive sex education that is. In Economic Issues for Women in Texas, Texas Women’s Foundation has continued to focus on four building blocks of economic security: child care, health insurance, education and housing. These findings fuel our programming, community granting and […]

7/15/2019 While the spring Army reports were all about happenings at the 86th Texas Legislature, that is not the only place Texas Women’s Foundation works to advance policies and programs for women and girls in Texas. We supported two very exciting wins in Dallas this spring focused on child care and health. This week we […]

6/18/2019 Dear Army of Advocates! The 86th Texas Legislature is done, there is no special session and, while not a complete win for the issues Texas Women’s Foundation supported to advance economic security for women, it was a very good session for women, working families and for Texas. I want to highlight a few wins, […]

5/01/2019 The Texas Budget, also known as HB1, is in conference where the two budgets approved by the Senate and the House will come together into one appropriations bill that will fund our state for the next two years. There are many great things in the budget, but today we are highlighting one, an exceptional […]

4/17/2019 We have just over 40 days left in the 140-day 86th Texas Legislative session. You are hearing a lot about property tax and school finance, but there is also movement on issues that are directly focused on women and girls. This week, we are asking that you reach out to members of the Senate […]

4/2/2019 We hope you will join us, and our long-time grantee, TexProtects, in securing thank you notes to several Texas House members who were instrumental in keeping needs of women and children first in the budgeting process. The budget is known as House Bill 1, because it is the only truly required action the Legislature […]