Scout

Scout is a free and new legislative research website that covers the 50 states and Congress. It provided daily insight on how laws and regulations are developed in Washington, D.C. You can subscribe to customized or text alerts on regulations and bills.

Financial Reform Bill Passes

As you probably have heard, the Financial Reform Bill, also known as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and also known as the Restoring American Financial Stability Act, also known as the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009, was passed by the Senate yesterday.

Jim Hamilton, writer for the "Jim Hamilton's World of Securities Regulations" Blog has a great overview of the Bill. His entry can be found at: http://jimhamiltonblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/congress-approves-historic-and-sweeping.html.

For the full-text bill

HR 4173
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:HR4173:
(Over 1200 pages)

S 3217
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=2&vote=00208

Need a New Appliance? Wait until April...

If you need a new appliance, wait until April! Texas will be offering (as part of the 2009 stimulus package) consumers rebates for their "clunker" appliances. If you trade in your old appliances for Energy Star appliances rebates are available for refrigerators, freezers, central air, air conditioners, washers, dryers, etc.

Appliances must be purchased between April 16-25, 2010.

For more information: http://www.seco.cpa.state.tx.us/arra/rebate/index.php

New Website: Recovery.gov

Check out this new website by the government. This site will help you keep track of where the money, courtesy of the recovery bill just passed by Congress, is being spent.

http://www.recovery.gov/

"The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be carried out with full transparency and accountability -- and Recovery.gov is the centerpiece of that effort..."--from the website.

It's Back...Now Houses Delays Bill

The House now passes the Bill to delay the switch to activite digital television. The date has been moved from Feb. 17th to June 12th.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/04/AR2009020402584.html?hpid=topnews

Emergency Economic Stabilization Bill of 2008

To find the most recent copy of the EMERGENCY ECONOMIC STABILIZATION Bill: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c110:1:./temp/~c110x9Uvhn::

HR 1424

Legislative wrap-up

The Dallas Morning News has a chart of bills that did and did not pass, with a brief description of each. You can find more information on bills at http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/Home.aspx.

If you go to http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/Reports/General.aspx, you can look for reports of bills that were filed, effective immediately, effective in 90 days, and other reports.

Update on SSN Bill

"A bill that would allow individuals to ask that their Social Security numbers be kept private on documents maintained by Texas' 254 county clerks is awaiting a signature from Gov. Rick Perry after it blazed through both chambers of the Texas Legislature.

It took House Bill 2061 a little more than three weeks to land on the governor's desk."

Read the entire article at: http://www.topix.net/content/kri/2486725776317661387310563293774081014344

License Plate Legislation

As a follow up to the earlier post on license plates, the bill has now passed the senate and the house and should be on the way to Gov. Perry's desk for signing.

More on the Vaccine...

Here's an update on the previous posting about the vaccinations in Texas:

"A House committee hearing on a bill to override Governor Rick Perry's order requiring schoolgirls to get the HPV vaccine stretched into Tuesday morning without a vote. "

http://www.newschannel5.tv/News/Other/5937/-Lawmakers-discuss-requiring-cervical-cancer-vaccine