Press Releases

By Susan Jaffe

July 29, 2015

The U.S. Senate unanimously approved legislation Monday night requiring hospitals across the nation to tell Medicare patients when they receive observation care but have not been admitted to the hospital. It’s a distinction that’s easy to miss until patients are hit with big medical bills after a short stay.

July 5, 2015

SAN ANTONIO — Texas officials applauded a United Nations committee's decision Sunday to add the Alamo and four other Spanish Roman Catholic missions to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites, knowing it may bring more tourists.

The UNESCO World Heritage committee added the sites, collectively known as the San Antonio Missions, to the list during a meeting in Bonn, Germany.

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a San Antonio native, said in a statement that he was "proud and grateful" to the UN cultural body.

by Edgar Walters and Alexa Ura

June 25, 2015

In a major victory for the Obama administration, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a key element of the president’s signature health law — the part that gives tax subsidies to people who buy health insurance on the Affordable Care Act’s federal marketplace.

"It's time for opponents to face facts: The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land, and it's working," Democratic state Rep. Donna Howard of Austin said in a statement.

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June 19, 2015

By: Scott Huddleston

Dear Colleague:

As the debate about Fast Track trade authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) continues, we write to address the frequently repeated assertion that the TPP will have strongest labor and environmental standards ever. To assess whether the TPP is setting a high watermark, we should look to past agreements to see if we are progressing or simply remaking mistakes of the past.