The Texas Health and Human Services Commission would end 12 client-service programs and cut funding for others to meet the 3 percent reduction state leaders ordered for the next budget, according to the reduction schedule the agency published this month. The client-service cuts total $205.5 million in general revenue over the 2028-29 biennium: $87.2 million from programs eliminated outright and $118.3 million from programs scaled back.
Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows directed every state agency on July 14 to cut its base request by 3 percent in its Legislative Appropriations Request for 2028-29. HHSC’s share is $330.8 million, part of a $335.0 million target that also covers the agency’s Office of Inspector General and the Texas Civil Commitment Office.
The programs slated for elimination include HHSC support of the County Indigent Healthcare Program, the general revenue autism program for children outside Medicaid, Healthy Texas Women navigator services and cost-reimbursement contracts, the Pediatric Tele-connectivity Resources Program and the Statewide Youth Services Network. The deepest single reduction falls on Healthy Outcomes through Prevention and Early Support, a family-support program known as HOPES, which would lose $54.6 million. The Texas Home Visiting Program would lose nearly $22 million, and the agency would end funding for its four SNAP outreach grantees.
Most of the agency’s budget was never on the table. Of HHSC’s $43.6 billion general revenue base for 2026-27, $32.3 billion was excluded as “amounts necessary to maintain benefits and eligibility as required by state law for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.” That is 74 percent of the base. Another $37.3 million for debt service was also excluded, and the agency calculated the 3 percent on the $11.2 billion it lists as subject to the cut.
Dozens of advocates asked lawmakers to protect the programs at a Legislative Budget Board hearing Thursday, KERA News reported. HHSC Commissioner Stephanie Muth said the agency began with programs that had become obsolete or whose federal funding had lapsed before it reached client services. “The agency is in no way saying that these are not beneficial or important programs in the community,” Muth said. “We just took a surgical approach to what the recommendations would be to meet the budget instructions.”
Jacquie Benestante, executive director of the Autism Society of Texas, said the state had expanded the autism program in August to serve a wider range of ages and cover more hours of therapy. “The budget should really support the expansion of this program, not eliminate this program,” she said. KERA also reported that Texas expects to cover an additional $117 million because of federal changes to how SNAP administration is paid for.
HHSC’s schedule says the agency aimed its client-service cuts at “minimizing impacts to federal funding.” Its summary table lists those cuts at $205.5 million in general revenue and $205.5 million in all funds, which means none of the reduced dollars carries a federal match. A dollar cut from a matched program also gives up the federal share that comes with it, so the programs within reach are the ones Texas pays for entirely with its own money. Those are the programs on this list, and the Legislature will decide in the 2027 session which of them Texas keeps.
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