When the Texas Legislature first began crafting regulations for administering CHIP, Bush originally supported a plan that would have left out 200,000 children of the working poor at a time when the state was enjoying a surplus. But more generous regulations were enacted, and today, the Kaiser report said that Texas has eliminated many enrollment barriers. In truth, Bush's record with the colonias is mixed. He is routinely criticized for never visiting a colonia, and he vetoed an omnibus bill in 1997 to help the ramshackle neighborhoods. But he supported an effort two years later to coordinate state agencies to improve living conditions in the areas.
Welfare reform is another area where the Texas governor points to progress.
Bush made welfare reform a cornerstone of his 1994 gubernatorial campaign. Once elected, he worked with the Legislature to enact a program that focused on getting more people to work by setting up local job training for welfare recipients. Welfare reform success story Deborah Dickerson, an HIV outreach counselor and mother of four, is one of the success stories of Texas welfare reform. Since her release in 1997, she has been clean, sober and employed full time. These days, she insists that welfare is for the old who cannot work and for those who have recently lost a job.