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Capital Tonight: Deciding the future of CPRIT and water
02/05/2013 05:51 PM
By: Capital Tonight Staff

CPRIT ready for reform

CPRIT officials went before members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee Tuesday morning, and then the Finance committee Tuesday afternoon, to address issues uncovered last year. The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas has been under scrutiny since an audit discovered problems in the agency's grant review process.

Sen. Wendy Davis also addressed the issue of CPRIT reform Tuesday. She filed a bill to make changes to the structure and guidelines of the organization. Davis' bill calls for removing Attorney General Greg Abbott and Comptroller Susan Combs from the Oversight Committee. The bill also moves up the agency's review by the Sunset Advisory Commission to 2015. Davis spoke to Capital Tonight's Karina Kling about some of her goals for CPRIT and regaining the trust of taxpayers.

Water planning takes center stage

Members of the Texas Water Development Board met Tuesday with lawmakers to discuss their plans for the future of water in Texas. Gov. Rick Perry called for dipping into the Rainy Day Fund for water infrastructure in his State of the State address last week, a move many lawmakers from both parties support.

Former Texas lawmakers Aaron Peña and Hector Uribe sat down with Paul Brown to discuss how the continuing drought might affect spending in the legislature this year. They also talked about education funding and potential changes to the Permanent Education Fund.

Unemployment in Texas

Paul Brown sat down with Texas Workforce Commissioner Tom Pauken to discuss unemployment and education in Texas. Click the image below to see the full interview.




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