BUILDING A BETTER TEXAS TOGETHER!

Representative Perez Files Ambitious Legislative Agenda to Bring More Experienced International Doctors to Texas, Increase Dual Credit Teachers, and Allow Voters to Recall Absent School Board Trustees

Perez also continues fight for UTEP Law School & urges federal government to repeal passport requirement for American citizens crossing the border

AUSTIN, TX – State Representative Vince Perez (D- El Paso) has filled an ambitious set of legislative priorities to benefit the people of El Paso and all of Texas, including bills to allow experienced doctors from foreign countries to practice in the state and to increase the number of teachers eligible to teach dual credit courses. He also filed legislation to establish the first law school in the Texas border region.

"As I discussed during the campaign, our state must do more to increase the number of experienced doctors, and this legislation would allow qualified international doctors who pass the American medical licensing exam and successfully completed a residency program in their home country to partner with a Texas doctor to earn a license to practice in Texas," Perez said. "It's common sense legislation that would boost the number of Doctors available in El Paso and throughout Texas."

In February, Speaker Dustin Burrows appointed Representative Perez to the influential Ways and Means Committee, a rare appointment for a freshman representative. Perez is the first El Paso Representative to serve on the tax-writing committee in more than a decade. He was also appointed to the Higher Education Committee, and the Local, consent, and Resolutions Calendar Committee.

In addition to HB 2852 to creating a provisional medical license program to allow more foreign-trained physicians in Texas, Representative Perez's top priorities include:

HB 2850 – Establishing incentives for public school teachers to teach dual credit courses by paying for their master's education needed to obtain certification for dual credit. This bill would increase the number of teachers available for dual credit courses and increase the number of students who receive college credit while in high school.

HB 3475 – Establishing the first law school in the Texas-Mexico border at UTEP to expand access to legal education and educate the next generation of legal professionals.

HB 4262 & HJR 181 – Allowing for the recall of absent school board members. In response to SISD trustees who have been absent from their duties for over 6 months, this legislation would allow voters to initiate a recall election when their trustees have abandoned their duties.

"If a school board trustee abandons the people they were elected to serve, voters should have the opportunity to remove them from office," Perez said.

HB 4270 – Providing tax incentives for property owners who renovate aging homes in districts experiencing school closures. In response to recent school closures due to large population declines in older neighborhoods, this legislation would encourage families to locate in certain reinvestment zones within House District 77 by incentivizing property owners who modernize aging homes.

HB 3499 & HJR 159 – Removing tax homestead exemptions on households with high-risk, recently-released sex offenders. This legislation would remove tax breaks on households in neighborhoods where recently-released, high-risk sex offenders are housed.

HB 2853 & HB 2855 – Building a new student union at UTEP by allowing the university to use revenue bonds to finance a new state-of-the-art facility.

H.C.R No.112 – Urging the Congress to repeal the passport requirement for daily border travel and allowing the use of Texas' REAL ID as acceptable identification for crossings.

"Our federal government shouldn't require American citizens to spend nearly $200 for a passport to cross back and forth into Mexico and U.S. It's not Mexico that requires a passport to travel into Juarez or other border towns, it's the United States. This only hurts Americans and discourages cross border travel between El Paso and Juarez," Perez said. Now that Texas requires proof of citizenship to obtain a REAL ID, our driver's licenses and state ID's should be acceptable form of identification when crossing back into the United States. I urge Congress to repeal the passport requirement on Americans for daily crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Vince Perez is State Representative for House District 77 in El Paso. He serves on the influential House Ways and Means Committee as well the committees on Higher Education and Local, Consent, and Resolutions Calendars. He is the former El Paso County Commissioner for Precinct 3 and was named the 2016 County Leader of the Year by American City & County Magazine. He is a lifelong resident of El Paso's Mission Valley, where he lives with his dogs Whiskey, Lady, and Manchas.