WFS Shift The South Legislative Recap 2026 by The Women's Foundation of the South

LEGISLATIVE RECAP 2026

Foreword Every legislative session tells a story about who a state believes deserves to be protected, supported, heard, and given the freedom to thrive. Across the South, those decisions are rarely abstract. They show up in whether a pregnant patient receives care before a crisis becomes catastrophic. Whether a parent can take leave without losing a paycheck. Whether a young person can speak honestly with a healthcare provider. Whether a formerly incarcerated citizen can reclaim the right to vote. Whether an immigrant family can seek help without fear. And whether communities have the education, public systems, and civic infrastructure they need to build a flourishing future. That is why the Women’s Foundation of the South produces the Shift the South Legislative Recap. We do not examine legislation simply to count bills passed or defeated. We examine policy because policy creates conditions and those conditions shape the health, wealth, and power of women, families, and gender-expansive people across our region, especially people of color who are too often denied the full measure of safety, opportunity, dignity, and self-determination. The 2026 sessions reveal competing visions of the American South. We saw meaningful advances: investments in maternal and infant health; increased contraception access; stronger support for families navigating pregnancy loss; paid-leave expansions; education investments; and clearer pathways for some Alabamians to restore their voting rights. These measures remind us that government can be a force for care, stability, access, and possibility. We also saw policies that deepen surveillance, restrict confidential healthcare conversations, create new barriers to public benefits and voting, and intensify immigration enforcement. We saw proposals that would have strengthened family well-being, worker security, maternal care, childcare access, and economic equity fail to move. A bill that does not pass is not merely a missed legislative opportunity. For families already carrying the weight of inequitable systems, it can mean another year without protection, relief, or recourse. Yet this report is not only a record of what lawmakers did. It is a testament to what communities made possible. Throughout Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas, advocates and WFS grantee partners organized, educated community members, testified, built coalitions, translated lived experience into public policy, stopped harmful proposals, advanced better ones, and prepared communities for the fights ahead. Their work demonstrates a truth we hold deeply at WFS: the people closest to the challenges are not simply recipients of policy. They are experts, strategists, leaders, and architects of the solutions our region needs.

The South has always shaped the direction of this nation. When the South restricts freedom, the consequences travel far beyond our state lines. When the South expands dignity, opportunity, and democratic participation, it offers the country a blueprint for transformation. Our responsibility, then, is not merely to be informed. Awareness must move us toward advocacy. Advocacy must be resourced. Community leadership must be trusted. Lawmakers must be held accountable. And every person who believes in a more just and thriving South must understand that the future is being written not only in capitol buildings, but also in community meetings, coalition tables, district offices, public hearings, and voting booths. I invite you to read this recap with both clear eyes and a determined heart. Study the wins. Confront the blows. Learn from the mixed results. Follow and support the organizations building power every day. Use this report to ask better questions, make more courageous investments, and act wherever you have influence. We are not waiting for the South to change on its own. Together, we are building the health, wealth, and power required to #ShiftTheSouth—and, in doing so, to shift the future of our nation. Partner with us to #SeedTheSouth.

Carmen James Randolph

Founding President and CEO Women’s Foundation of the South

Join the Conversation and the Community /womensfdnsouth /womensfdnsouth /company/womens-foundation-of-the-south www.womensfoundationsouth.org

Introduction and Summary Through its 2026 Shift the South Legislative Recap, the Women’s Foundation of the South (WFS) examines the legislative decisions most consequential to the health, wealth, and power of women, families, and gender-expansive people, particularly people who have historically borne the greatest burden of inequitable policy. These decisions do more than establish policy; they shape the conditions in which people live, the care they can access, the economic security their families can build, the education available to their children, the power they can exercise at the ballot box, and the freedom they have to live with dignity and self-determination. Like the report’s inaugural year in 2025, the 2026 edition focuses on the issues of maternal and infant health, gender-affirming care, economic security for families, and civic participation in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Georgia. Again, WFS also provides a regional highlight of immigration policies passed, given the broad impact of immigration on Southern families and communities. This year, a new issue that WFS added is education, given that it is a social determinate of health and inextricably tied to WFS’ pillar of wealth. The Shift the South Legislative Recap does not provide a comprehensive recap of all policies passed this year related to these issue areas; however, it focuses on those policies matter most impactful to the health, wealth, and power of women, families, and gender expansive people most impacted by injustice in these states. In 2026, WFS’ review has surfaced nineteen policy wins, eight policy setbacks, and eight policies, which we assert will deliver mixed results.

Health In maternal and infant health, the South saw several policy wins. Louisiana created advisory groups to address women’s health issues, including uterine fibroids and endometriosis, while Mississippi established efforts to reduce fetal and infant deaths in a state where infant mortality remains alarmingly high. Tennessee and Georgia also advanced policies to expand access to contraception, which is linked to improved maternal health outcomes. However, Georgia’s policy still makes access dependent on a pharmacist’s discretion. For gender-affirming care, Tennessee passed a policy with potentially mixed results, prohibiting healthcare providers from discussing gender with a child unless a parent is present and provides informed consent directly connected to the diagnosis or treatment of a specific medical condition.

Wealth In economic security, the South saw both progress and setbacks. Louisiana advanced a meaningful policy win by requiring paid family leave for public school employees, recognizing that workers should not have to choose between caring for their families and keeping a paycheck. In Tennessee, however, new restrictions on charitable bail funds and third parties posting bail could make pretrial release even less accessible for low-income people, deepening the financial instability that detention can create for individuals and families before a conviction occurs. Education also emerged as a key driver of wealth and long-term economic opportunity. Alabama and Mississippi increased their education budgets compared to the previous year, including salary increases for public education employees in Alabama and teachers in Mississippi. Louisiana also expanded career and technical education by allowing charter schools focused on workforce credentials and technical skills, creating more direct pathways for students into industries facing labor shortages.

Power In civic participation, Alabama recorded important gains, including the creation of a new voting center in a majority-Black county and a requirement that voting-rights restoration instructions and applications for formerly incarcerated people be made available online. These steps can help remove practical barriers to political participation. At the same time, Louisiana’s Act 2 represents a significant setback: the redrawing of congressional district boundaries reduced the numberof majority-Black districts from two to one, even though Black residents make up approximately one-third of the state’s population. Immigration policy also remained a consequential fault line across the region. Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee advanced policies that expand immigration enforcement or increase citizenship and work-authorization verification requirements. For immigrant and mixed-status families, these measures can affect access to public systems, economic stability, and the ability to participate safely in everyday community life. This year’s Recap also recognizes that policy work does not begin or end when a legislature convenes. Arkansas held a fiscal session, where lawmakers focused primarily on budget matters rather than new legislation; this Recap includes highlights from that process because budgets are one of the clearest expressions of public priorities. Texas, meanwhile, is in an interim period before its 2027 legislative session. The Recap includes an example of how Texas legislators, community members, and grassroots organizations are using this time to shape the policy agenda before lawmakers return to session.

Throughout the Legislative Recap, WFS also lifts up the advocacy of grantee partners who are organizing for policies that strengthen their communities and mobilizing against legislation that would cause harm. These examples represent only a fraction of the work being carried out by WFS’ 131 grantee partners across six Southern states. Much of this work on the ground is led by women, and when these women advocate for just policies, they are fighting for everyone whose lives are impacted by those policies. Their leadership makes it clear that policy change is not abstract; it is driven by people rooted in community, closest to the issues, and committed to transforming conditions on the ground. The 2026 Shift the South Legislative Recap therefore tells two stories at once: a story about the decisions being made in Southern statehouses, and a story about the people refusing to leave the future of the South to those decisions alone. Legislation shapes daily life, but it does not determine what is possible. Across the South, advocates and communities continue to organize, testify, vote, invest, challenge, build, and lead. Their work reminds us that the future of this region will not be decided solely inside state capitols. It will also be shaped by the power communities build beyond those walls and the collective force they bring back through the doors. That is how we build health. That is how we build wealth. That is how we build power. And together, that is how we #ShiftTheSouth.

Identification of Policy Gains and Setbacks

HEALTH Maternal and Infant Health WINS Establishes the Louisiana Women's Health Consortium, a specialized advisory group of public and private sector experts, within the Department of Health. One of the Consortium’s responsibilities include developing an "Interagency Women's Health Agenda", which is an assessment of the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities of health issues that significantly affect women, in particular perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause. It strengthens collaboration among healthcare organizations and policymakers to build more coordinated, evidence-based strategies for maternal health and access to care. Louisiana: Act 855

Establishes the Uterine Fibroids Commission within the Department of Health to raise awareness of uterine fibroids, endometriosis, and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), evaluate existing programs, and recommend policy fixes to the Legislature every year. This policy puts chronically under-researched conditions that disproportionately affect Black women on the state's policy agenda, strengthening research, data collection, and access to quality care. Louisiana: Act 205

Establishes a Perinatal Bereavement Care Initiative within the Louisiana Department of Health to support families after pregnancy loss, stillbirth, or infant death. The policy will also build training, resources, and best practices so grieving mothers and families get compassionate, consistent care - not just medical treatment, but recognition of their emotional and mental health needs. Louisiana: Act 346

Creates a Fetal and Infant Mortality Review Panel to examine why fetal and infant deaths happen and where the system is failing families through reviewing data. The policy will give Mississippi, the worst state in the nation for infant mortality based on the 2025 March of Dimes report, a structured process for turning data into preventative strategies and informing healthcare practice, policy, and initiatives aimed at closing disparities in birth outcomes. Mississippi: House Bill 1637

Requires hospitals to stabilize pregnant patients experiencing a medical emergency before discharge or transfer, modeled on federal emergency care standards. Reinforces access to emergency care during the moments when delay can mean serious harm to the patient and/or the pregnancy. Tennessee: Public Chapter 1080

Requires insurers to cover the dispensing of a 12-month supply of birth control at one time. Cuts out the barriers such as transportation, pharmacy access, and insurance friction that break up consistent contraceptive use. For Tennesseans, especially those in rural areas or with limited access to healthcare providers, this means fewer gaps in contraception and fewer unintended pregnancies. Greater access to contraception has been shown to be closely linked to improved maternal health outcomes. Tennessee: Public Chapter 1043

MIXED

Georgia: Act 447

Permits any licensed Georgia pharmacist to dispense contraceptives to patients at least 18 years old, or to minors with a previous prescription from a doctor. This allows for easier access to contraception particularly for rural patients and anyone facing barriers to reaching healthcare providers. However, the policy states that pharmacists can refuse to dispense birth control, which could create barriers for patients seeking timely reproductive healthcare.

Louisiana: Act 259

Requires the posting of signs in student health centers at public schools, colleges, and universities to provide information on available pregnancy resources. Gives pregnant students more visibility into support services. However, the law says nothing about whether that information should reflect the full range of reproductive healthcare options, thus leaving the law's real impact entirely dependent on what gets posted.

Mississippi: Pregnancy Resource Act

Makes several changes to Mississippi's tax-credit program for donations to certain pregnancy-related charitable organizations. It increases financial incentives for individuals and businesses to donate to qualifying pregnancy-related organizations. By expanding eligibility and opening the credit to individual taxpayers, the law may direct more funding to these organizations. Advocates warn this law incentivizes funding toward centers that cannot comprehensively meet the medical needs of pregnant women, especially care that may be medically necessary which would be detrimental to the lives of pregnant women.

Gender-Affirming Care MIXED

Tennessee: Public Chapter 748

Bars healthcare providers from asking a child about gender unless a parent is present and gives signed, informed consent tied directly to diagnosis or treatment of a specific medical condition. Backers frame it as reinforcing parental rights and transparency between families and providers. However, this policy also closes confidential healthcare conversations for young people, thus making it harder for some youth to talk to a provider about gender identity, mental health, or their own well-being.

Grantee Highlight Trans Women of Color Healing Project of Georgia

The Trans Women of Color Healing Project (TWOCHP) fights for the safety, dignity, and civil rights of LGBTQ+ communities, with a particular focus on Black trans women, trans youth, gender-diverse people, femmes, and their families. During the 2026 session, TWOCHP joined statewide efforts to defeat a wave of bills threatening gender-affirming healthcare, LGBTQ+ visibility, student privacy, and healthcare coverage. That included SB 39, which would have blocked Georgia's State Health Benefit Plan from covering gender-affirming care. SB 39 did not pass. TWOCHP worked alongside advocacy partners to raise awareness, mobilize community members, and put the people most affected by these bills in front of the lawmakers writing them, grounded in the belief that Black trans women, trans youth, gender-diverse people, and LGBTQ+ families deserve safety, dignity, visibility, and equitable care.

WEALTH Economic Security for Families

WINS Provides paid parental leave for eligible employees of local public school systems, including teachers and other school personnel, following the birth, adoption, foster placement, pregnancy, or loss of a child. Eligible employees may receive up to six weeks of paid leave at 100% of base pay without using accrued sick or annual leave. This reduces financial stress on the family and promotes bonding or time to grieve in the case of loss. Louisiana: Act 744

MIXED Alabama: Act 2026-523 Alabama public education employees generally earn one paid sick day for each month worked and can carry over unused leave. Act 2026-523 gives employees more flexibility by allowing them to donate accrued sick days directly to colleagues who need additional leave. While this could help workers avoid unpaid time off during an illness or family emergency, the law does not expand paid sick leave; it relies on employees sharing leave they have already earned.

Louisiana: Act 817 Creates Louisiana's first paid family leave program, which is a framework for voluntary paid family leave insurance that can help eligible workers take paid time away from the job to bond with a new child, recover from childbirth, care for a family member with a serious health condition, or meet other qualifying family needs. The law allows licensed insurers to offer policies that employers may choose to provide to workers. Paid leave is proven to improve maternal and infant health outcomes, boost workforce retention, and keep families financially afloat during caregiving. This policy is a good step forward but not strong enough to ensure that workers are receiving paid family leave, given that the program is not state funded nor a law requiring employers to provide paid family leave.

BLOWS Tennessee: Public Chapter 941 Restricts charitable bail funds and third parties from posting bail on behalf of people in custody. Makes pretrial release harder to achieve for low-income people who can't afford bail on their own and depend on community organizations to get out. This results in job loss, housing instability and financial hardship for a greater number of economically vulnerable people who are imprisoned but have not been convicted.

Education WINS Alabama: Act 2026-380, 418, 599, 600, 601

Approves a historic investment in education, including a record $10.5 billion Education Trust Fund budget for FY2027, roughly a $570 million increase over the previous year’s regular Education Trust Fund budget, as part of Alabama’s broader education spending package totaling $12.4 billion. Several of the elements of this budget include: $7.6 billion to support K-12 education, including the state's core school funding program, classroom instruction, teachers and support staff, and school operations and $2.89 billion for Alabama’s public two-year community colleges and four-year universities.

$226 million for the expansion of the state’s First-Class Pre-K Program so that it would be available to nearly half of four-year olds.

Approximately $265 million for the Alabama Literacy Act which was passed in 2019 that aims to ensure all public school students read at or above grade level by the end of third grade and the Alabama Numeracy Act, a 2022 law designed to improve math skills for K-5 students.

Under Act 2026-601, the budget package also provides a 2% pay raise for public education employees and additional support for the Public Education Employees' Health Insurance Plan (PEEHIP) as the state addresses rising health care costs for educators and school personnel. Alabama: Act 2026-507

Makes computer science a high school graduation requirement beginning with the Class of 2032. Prepares students for a workforce that increasingly demands these skills, while requiring schools to expand course offerings and train educators to teach them.

Louisiana: Act 523 – Individual Graduation Plans

Updates requirements for students' Individual Graduation Plans to sharpen academic planning and career readiness throughout high school. Students and families get clearer, more structured guidance for what comes after graduation, whether it is college, career, military, or technical training.

Alabama: Act 2026-169 (Healthy Early Development and Screen Time Act)

Requires state agencies to establish screen time limits in preschools, child care centers, and kindergarten classrooms, while prohibiting screen time for children under age two in those settings. Ensures that young children get sufficient hands-on learning, social interaction, and play, which are crucial for healthy brain development. Louisiana: Act 555 – Career and Technical Charter Schools

Authorizes charter schools specializing in career and technical education and expands the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education's authority to approve workforcefocused charter schools aligned with regional economic needs. Gives students a faster track towards workforce credentials and technical skills in industries facing worker shortages.

Mississippi: House Bill 1935

Funds Mississippi's public K–12 education system for Fiscal Year 2027, providing approximately $3.5 billion in state support for public education which is about $120 million more than the previous fiscal year. Several highlights from this year’s public education budget include Additional resources toward educator recruitment and retention, including a $2,000 pay raise for certified teachers and teacher assistants which improves teacher retention. $34 million for early learning programs which will help maintain access to state-supported early learning. $99 million toward vocational and technical education to expand pathways that connect students with credentials, postsecondary opportunities, and high-demand careers .

Grantee Highlight Mississippi Black Womenʼs Roundtable

During the 2026 Mississippi legislative session, the Mississippi Black Women's Roundtable (MS BWR) advocated across public education, healthcare, voting rights, economic equity, maternal health, and family well-being, while working against a difficult fiscal backdrop shaped by fights over Medicaid, education funding, the Public Employees' Retirement System, school choice, and tax reform. Through a coalition of grassroots leaders, advocates, service providers, and other partners, MS BWR combined advocacy days, constituent outreach, storytelling, and media engagement to turn lived experience into legislative pressure. In the end, MS BWR helped advance a diaper tax exemption bill while slowing or stopping several harmful bills. Despite these gains, the legislative session also brought significant setbacks. Priority bills on paid family leave (SB2136), maternal health (HB 1493), childcare affordability (SB2465), fair wages, and voting rights (HB 793) failed to advance. The mixed outcome underscores that while MS BWR's coalition-building and advocacy strategy produced real wins, the broader legislative fight to secure protections for Black women and families in Mississippi remains far from over.

POWER Civic Participation WINS

Alabama: Act 2026-531

Requires the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles to make voting rights restoration applications and instructions publicly available online and to notify individuals and the Secretary of State when voting rights have been restored. Cuts through a process that has long kept formerly incarcerated Alabamians in the dark about whether and how they can vote again, with a clear online application and required notice once rights are restored.

Alabama: Act 2026-373

Establishes a new voting center in Perry County to provide residents with an additional location for voting and election-related services. Perry County is a majority-Black county in Alabama's Black Belt with a population of 8,511. The new center cuts travel burdens and expands access to the ballot box in a rural community that has gone without enough polling infrastructure for too long.

MIXED Alabama: Act 2026-570 Limits the cost of obtaining voter registration lists, restricts the release of certain personal voter information, and creates penalties for the misuse of voter data. Prohibits use of voter information for commercial purposes and caps the fee for electronic voter registration lists at $1,000. Limits disclosure of sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, email addresses, phone numbers while standardizing and lowering the cost of obtaining voter registration lists for researchers, journalists, and advocacy organizations. Supporters say this protects voters from identity theft and unwanted solicitation while preserving public access to election data. Others warn the same restrictions could make voter outreach and education harder for the civic engagement organizations that depend on that data.

Louisiana: Act 6 Requires state election officials to verify the citizenship status of registered voters by comparing voter registration records with available state and federal databases. Establishes procedures for addressing potential citizenship discrepancies. Advocates warn that citizenship verification systems are prone to false matches and administrative errors, which creates new hurdles for naturalized citizens and anyone whose records don't line up cleanly, even when they are fully eligible to vote.

BLOWS Louisiana: Act 2 Provides for the redistricting of Louisiana's congressional districts, redrawing district boundaries following legal and political disputes over representation. The new map reduces the number of majority-Black congressional districts from two to one district out of the state’s six districts. Advocates oppose the new map arguing that eliminating one majority-Black district could reduce Black voters’ representation in Congress. African Americans constitute 32% of Louisiana’s population based on the latest census.

Grantee Highlight Georgia STAND-UP Georgia STAND-UP's top priority in 2026 was to back against proposed changes to the state's voting districts and election procedures. After court decisions weakened federal voting protections, Georgia lawmakers began considering new district maps that could shrink majority-Black representation, alongside changes to how ballots are processed and counted, during a special session that opened June 17, 2026. Working alongside the ACLU and coalition partners, STAND-UP opposed measures that could restrict voting access while getting ahead of confusion with public education on the new rules. STAND-UP is now activating its voter education and voter protection networks to defend minority participation in the 2026 midterm elections.

Regional Spotlight: Immigration Immigration policy remained a major focus across Southern legislatures in 2026. Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee enacted laws that have expanded enforcement as well as cooperation with federal authorities and increased documentation requirements. Georgia took a different path by increasing healthcare access through allowing internationally trained physicians to serve underserved communities.

WINS

Georgia Act 509 – Expanding Access to Healthcare

Creates a pathway for internationally trained physicians to practice under provisional licenses in medically underserved communities. After two to four years of service, they can qualify for full licensure, turning a workforce shortage into an opportunity for underserved patients to get care.

BLOWS Several Southern states enacted laws that increased immigration enforcement or expanded citizenship verification requirements:

Alabama: Act 2026-421 Alabama now requires certain commercial drivers to prove work authorization and meet English proficiency requirements, with new penalties for documentation violations.

Mississippi: House Bill 1193, Senate Bill 2514, Senate Bill 2588 Mississippi passed a slate of laws expanding cooperation with federal immigration authorities, banning sanctuary policies, creating state penalties tied to unlawful entry, and requiring SAVE database citizenship verification during voter registration.

Louisiana: Act 745 Louisiana requires state agencies to refer applicants to ICE when citizenship or immigration status can't be verified during eligibility reviews.

Tennessee: Public Chapter 1044 Tennessee expanded citizenship verification requirements for certain public benefits administered by local governments.

The results are two different playbooks within one region: expanding access to immigrants on one hand, increasing enforcement on the other—each reshaping what workforce, public services, and immigration policy mean for Southern communities.

Legislative Context Arkansas Fiscal Session Arkansas held a fiscal session in 2026—a constitutionally required, every-other-year session focused on the budget, not new policy. The session centered on appropriations for the state's major agencies: Education, Human Services, Health, Public Safety, Corrections, and Transportation. Legislators approved a $6.7 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2027: $3.4 billion went to K–12 public schools, continued Medicaid and health services funding, support for behavioral health, aging services, child and family services, developmental disability services, and an investment in career and technical education and workforce development. Lawmakers funded the Arkansas Minority Health Commission and Minority Health Initiative to address health disparities statewide, and increased funding for the Education Freedom Account program to $309 million for private school tuition, homeschooling, and other approved expenses.

Work of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families during 2026 Arkansas Fiscal Session During this year’s fiscal session, WFS grantee partner Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (AACF) voiced significant concerns about the state budget, emphasizing that a budget is a reflection of a state’s values and priorities. AACF argued that the fiscal year 2027 budget fails to adequately meet the needs of children and families across Arkansas and highlighted several key areas of concern. AACF urged lawmakers to increase funding for the Department of Human Services (DHS) in anticipation of Arkansas assuming an additional $18 million in SNAP administrative costs under HR1. Throughout the session, the organization educated policymakers on the importance of preserving SNAP, noting that the program is critical not only for low-income families but also for grocery retailers and local economies. Despite these efforts, DHS funding remained flat, leaving uncertainty about how the state will absorb these new costs. AACF also expressed concern over the state's decision to withhold 7% of funding from most state agencies, arguing that the reduced spending could limit agencies’ ability to deliver essential services and make it more difficult for Arkansans to access needed support. AACF contended that these funding constraints were implemented to facilitate additional income tax cuts rather than address the

pressing needs of low-income residents. Lawmakers ultimately approved a $192 million tax cut, which AACF maintained redirected resources that could have instead been invested in addressing food insecurity, expanding early childhood education, and strengthening rural healthcare.

Texas Interim Period: How Grassroots Organizing Shapes the Next Texas Legislative Session The Texas Legislature meets in regular session only once every two years. The Texas Legislature reconvenes in January 2027. The 18 months between sessions, the "interim", is when the groundwork for the next session happens. The Speaker of the House assigns "interim charges" to committees. Interim charges are topics to study before lawmakers reconvene, via hearings and expert testimony that shape future bills.

Listening Before Legislating Good policy rarely starts at the Capitol. It starts in the district—at town halls, during a representative’s office hours back home, through the advocacy of local nonprofits carrying firsthand community accounts and data to lawmakers as well as the compelling testimony of an individual constituent walking into a district office with a problem that becomes a legislator's priority. Representative Toni Rose, a Dallas Democrat representing District 110 which spans Southeast Dallas County, provides a good example of how legislators learn from advocates and community members to inform next year’s legislative agenda. Representative Rose has built a community-first approach, staying connected through groups like the NAACP Dallas and Every Texan. The Representative’s engagement with nonprofits and community members surfaced a recurring pattern: families are unable to keep up with rising healthcare costs. Rose has described constituents coming to her office unable to afford asthma treatment for their kids. In her words: “Affordable health care is not a luxury; it is a lifeline.” Before joining the Texas Legislature, Representative Rose worked at Parkland Hospital, the county hospital for Dallas County, Texas, as a mental health professional.

From Community Concern to Committee Work Gaining knowledge from stakeholders, research, and information is critical groundwork that can help legislators move the needle at the state level. In March 2026, Speaker Dustin Burrows created the House Select Committee on Health Care Affordability to investigate why healthcare costs keep climbing. Representative Rose serves as the Committee Vice Chair. The mandate of the Committee is broad: hospital consolidation, drug pricing, insurance design, price transparency. In its first hearings, held over two days in late April 2026, the committee heard health economists lay out how costs are outpacing wages. Representative Rose kept it grounded in the real experience of Texas families, telling colleagues that the situation “is not sustainable.” Experts come

to the committee hearings with quantitative evidence, while legislators like Representative Rose center constituent stories to paint the qualitative picture of the adverse impacts of soaring healthcare costs on the lives of Texans. Constituents can bring their stories of ways that their lives are affected by healthcare unaffordability to the forefront by communicating with their representative’s office and staying engaged with advocacy organizations. Advocates with policy proposals on how to increase healthcare affordability should reach out to the offices of Representative Burrows and Representative Rose. Moreover, anyone can attend this Committee’s meetings or watch the Committee's meetings online. The Committee's findings are expected to shape legislation when lawmakers convene in 2027—a direct line from conversations in a district office to a bill on the House floor.

Sources We extend our sincere appreciation to Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, Georgia STAND-UP, the Trans Women of Color Healing Project, and the Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable for contributing to the Shift the South Legislative Recap Report by sharing their 2026 advocacy highlights and for their continued leadership and commitment to advancing meaningful change across the South. We would also like to express our deep appreciation to Kimberly Sawyer, (state policy leader and political strategist), who was the primary author of the section Texas Interim Period: How Grassroots Organizing Shapes the Next Texas Legislative Session. Legislative information included in this report was obtained from official state legislative websites, including the Alabama Legislature, Arkansas General Assembly, Georgia General Assembly, Louisiana Legislature, Mississippi Legislature, Tennessee General Assembly, and Texas Legislature Online. These sources were used to review enacted legislation, bill summaries, legislative histories, and statutory language for measures considered during the 2026 legislative sessions.

Official Legislative and Agency Sources Alabama Legislature. (2026). ALISON: Alabama legislative information system online. Retrieved August 12, 2026, from https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/ Alabama Legislature. (2026). FY 2027 Education Trust Fund budget spreadsheets and enacted appropriations. Retrieved August 12, 2026, from https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/budget-spreadsheets Arkansas Bureau of Legislative Research. (2026). Summary of the 2026 fiscal session. https://arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument?path=/assembly/2025/2026F/Documents/2026+Fis cal+Session+Summary+Book.pdf

Arkansas General Assembly. (2026). Arkansas General Assembly. Retrieved August 12, 2026, from https://arkleg.state.ar.us/ Georgia Department of Community Health. (n.d.). Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) designations. Retrieved August 12, 2026, from https://dch.georgia.gov/health-professional-shortage-area-hpsa-designations Georgia General Assembly. (2026). Georgia General Assembly. Retrieved August 12, 2026, from https://www.legis.ga.gov/ Louisiana State Legislature. (2026). 2026 regular session: Bill search and act numbers to bills passed. Retrieved August 12, 2026, from https://www.legis.la.gov/Legis/BillSearchListQ.aspx?a=3584 Mississippi Legislature. (2026). Mississippi Legislature bill status system. Retrieved August 12, 2026, from https://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/ Tennessee General Assembly. (2026). Tennessee General Assembly. Retrieved August 12, 2026, from https://www.capitol.tn.gov/ Texas Legislature Online. (2026). Texas Legislature Online. Retrieved August 12, 2026, from https://capitol.texas.gov/

Additional Research and Analysis A+ Education Partnership. (2026, April 2). Budget Watch: Tracking the 2027 Education Trust Fund budget. https://aplusala.org/blog/2026/04/02/budget-watch-tracking-the-2027-education-trust-fund-bud get/ A+ Education Partnership. (2026, April 27). The 2026 legislative session: Which education bills passed and which didn't? https://aplusala.org/blog/2026/04/27/the-2026-legislative-session-which-didnt/ ExcelinEd in Action. (2026, June 4). Louisiana advances literacy, career pathways and student opportunity. https://excelinedinaction.org/2026/06/04/louisiana-advances-literacy-career-pathways-and-stud ent-opportunity/ March of Dimes. (2025). Mississippi report card. https://www.marchofdimes.org/peristats/reports/mississippi/report-card Mississippi Professional Educators. (2026, March 30). Legislature passes funding for pay raises. https://www.mpe.org/news/724463/Legislature-Passes-Funding-for-Pay-Raises.htm

NAACP. (2026, May 13). NAACP denounces Louisiana committee move to erase majority-Black district. https://naacp.org/articles/naacp-denounces-louisiana-committee-move-erase-majority-black-dist rict U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.). Quickfacts: Louisiana. U.S. Dept. Of Commerce.

CONTACT INFORMATION Thank you for reading the Women’s Foundation of the South’s 2026 Legislative Recap. Policy in the South decides who is protected and who is sacrificed. We hope this report arms advocates, funders, policymakers, and community members building a South where women, families, and gender-expansive people can live healthy, safe, self-determined lives. For questions about this report or opportunities to support our work, please contact:

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