+ − Contact Information
Phone: (512) 463-0112
Fax: (512) 463-0923
Office Address:
P.O. Box 12068, Capitol Station
Austin, TX 78711
+ − Biography
State Senator Jane Nelson represents District 12, which includes portions of Denton and Tarrant counties. She is a businesswoman and former teacher who served two terms on the State Board of Education before joining the Texas Senate.
Senator Nelson, the first woman in Texas legislative history to chair a standing budget-writing committee, serves as Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which shapes the state budget and crafts fiscal policy for Texas. As chair of Finance, Senator Nelson also serves as a member of the Legislative Budget Board, a body of five Senate and five House representatives that sets the constitutional spending limit and develops the draft appropriations bill. She also serves as Chairman of the Texas Sunset Commission.
Before becoming chair of Finance, Senator Nelson was the longest-serving chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, where she remains a member. Senator Nelson also serves on the Senate Nominations Committee; and the Senate Open Government Committee. She is the highest ranking Republican in the Senate.
Her many legislative accomplishments include measures to dedicate lottery proceeds to education; strengthen the focus on fitness and nutrition in our schools; assist victims of domestic violence; better protect abused and displaced children; reform our medical liability laws; ensure patient privacy; establish the Denton County Transportation Authority; and create the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. In the last session, she authored SB 7, containing costs and improving efficiency in the state's health and human services programs.
Senator Nelson was listed one of the Top 10 most effective legislators this decade by Capitol Inside. Out of all 50 states, she was selected as the National Distinguished Cancer Advocate of the Year in 2005. She has been named a Fighter for Free Enterprise by Texas Association of Business; "Texas' Best Medicine" by the Texas Medical Association; Most Conservative by Young Conservatives of Texas; and a Champion for Texas Children by Texas CASA.