There have been over 10,500 House and Senate bills filed and there is a month until sine die June 2nd. See below for a spotlight on bills from April in the following categories: Education, Energy & Environment, Healthcare, Legal, Property and Miscellaneous.
Education
SB 111 (Hall) Relating to transparency in special education legal proceedings involving a school district and a limit on legal fees that may be spent by a school district in special education legal proceedings.
- Finally passed the Senate (25-5) on 5/12
Energy & Environment
HB 29 (Gerdes) Relating to water losses reported by certain municipally owned utilities to the Texas Water Development Board.
- Finally passed the Senate (31-0) on 5/8
HB 1584 (Hull) Relating to the creation of a list of priority facilities by electric utilities.
- Finally passed the Senate (30-1) on 5/21, with 1 floor amendment to ensure customer data confidentiality is maintained
HB 4370 (Metcalf) Relating to the projects that may be undertaken by a public improvement district, municipal utility district, fresh water supply district, water control and improvement district or municipal management district.
- Finally passed the Senate (31-0) on 5/21
Healthcare
CSSB 457 (Kolkhorst) Relating to the regulation of certain nursing facilities, including licensing requirements and Medicaid participation requirements.
- Finally passed the Senate (31-0) on 5/1
SB 719 (Eckhardt) Relating to a study regarding available beds at inpatient mental health facilities providing acute psychiatric treatment.
- Finally passed the Senate (27-4) on 5/21, with 1 floor amendment that clarified HHSC is required to conduct the study only if funds are directly appropriated for that purpose
SB 1236 (Hughes) Relating to the relationship between pharmacists or pharmacies and health benefit plan issuers or pharmacy benefit managers.
- Passed the House (140-0) on 5/13
Legal
SB 835 (Paxton) Relating to the enforceability of certain nondisclosure or confidentiality provisions with respect to an act of sexual abuse committed against a child.
- Finally passed the Senate (31-0) on 5/15
SB 1025 (Bettencourt) Relating to the text of ballot propositions that increase taxes.
- Passed the House (102-45) on 5/8
- Senate concurred with House amendments (25-5) on 5/12, which added a tax increase statement to the top of the proposition so the disclosure can’t be hidden within ballot language
- Sent to the Governor on 5/13
SB 2411 (Schwertner) Relating to business organizations.
- Passed to 3rd reading in the House (132-0) on 5/13
- Finally passed the House (136-3) on 5/14
Property
HB 21 (Gates) Relating to housing finance corporations.
- Passed the House (113-15) on 5/10
- Finally passed the Senate (30-1) on 5/14
HB 30 (Troxclair) Relating to the repeal of provisions authorizing certain taxing units in the year following the year in which a disaster occurs to adopt an ad valorem tax rate that exceeds the voter-approval tax rate.
- Passed the House (95-51) on 5/8
- Finally passed the Senate (22-9) on 5/15
SB 1633 (Campbell) Relating to the authority of a county commissioners court to adopt an exemption from ad valorem taxation by each taxing unit that taxes the property of the portion of the appraised value of a person’s property.
- Finally passed the Senate (26-5) on 5/20
SB 2477 (Bettencourt) Relating to certain municipal and county regulation of conversion of certain office buildings to mixed-use and multifamily residential occupancy.
- Finally passed the Senate (27-4) on 5/8, with 1 floor amendment that struck that prohibition against municipalities charging application or permit fees
SB 2519 (Bettencourt) Relating to restrictions on the levy and use of certain ad valorem taxes and on the issuance of certain bonds supported by ad valorem taxes.
- Finally passed the Senate (23-7) on 5/12, with 1 floor amendment that struck references to specific projects and clarified bill intent
Miscellaneous
HB 33 (McLaughlin) Relating to active shooter events and other emergencies, including certain accreditations of law enforcement agencies that respond to such emergencies.
- Finally passed the Senate (31-0) on 5/19
HB 5195 (Capriglione) Relating to the modernization of state agency systems, including the improvement of online access to services and the reduction of paperwork requirements.
- Finally passed the Senate (31-0) on 5/21
SB 261 (Perry) Relating to the prohibited manufacture, processing, possession, distribution, offer for sale, and sale of cell-cultured protein.
- Finally passed the Senate (26-4) on 5/12, with 1 floor amendment that limited the ban to two years to provide time for cell cultured protein to be studied
CSSB 1585 (Hughes) Relating to a prohibition on governmental contracts with companies of foreign adversaries for certain information and communications technology.
- Finally passed the Senate (30-1) on 5/5, with 1 floor amendment that clarified this prohibition only applies to sensitive communication hardware
CSSB 2401 (Parker) Relating to governmental entities subject to the sunset review process.
- Finally passed the Senate (31-0) on 5/1
