Spotlight on Bills on the Move
HB 1 & HB 2 – Budget Bills
The House General Appropriations Bill, HB 1, was finally voted out of the House on April 1 after a marathon debate lasting over 17 hours. HB 1, appropriates $210 billion in all funds and $104.6 billion in general revenue spending (GR) which is $9.4 billion more than the last biennium. For more details on the committee substitute that was brought to the floor for debate:
Summary of Committee Substitute for House Bill 1 March 24, 2015| Budget
Committee Substitute for House Bill 1 March 24, 2015| Budget
During the HB 1 debate 427 amendments were proposed including those that went into Article XI and 217 amendments were adopted (does not include Article XI). To view all the amendments please paste the following link into your browser: http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Amendments.aspx?LegSess=84R&Bill=HB1
Additionally the House also voted out the supplemental appropriations bill, HB 2 with 4 adopted amendments. For more details:
Supplemental Bill Highlights: CSHB2March 24, 2015| Info-graphic
Committee Substitute for House Bill 2March 24, 2015| Budget
SB 20 (Nelson) – Contracting
SB 20 relating to contracting was passed out the Senate with one floor amendment – 30 ayes and 0 nays. The purpose of the bill is to reform state agency contracting. Among other things the bill would: amend the Government Code to specify that purchasing information reported by state agencies in the statewide uniform accounting system should include solicitation and contracting information, as defined by CPA. The bill would require agencies to submit a certain number of requests for pricing on purchases made through multiple award contract schedules at CPA and the Department of Information Resources (DIR) depending on the value of the goods, services, and contracts. Agencies would also be required to receive approval for statements of work on DIR information technology commodity contracts worth more than $50,000.
SB 20 will now move to the House for further consideration.
The bill as engrossed can be viewed by pasting the following link into your browser: http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/84R/billtext/pdf/SB00020E.pdf#navpanes=0
SB 538 (Schwertner) – Health Care
SB 536 relating to the control of infectious diseases was voted out of the Senate with 26 ayes and 4 nays with one adopted floor amendment. The bill will now move over to the House for further consideration. The bill would:
- Amend the Government Code and the Health and Safety Code relating to the control of infectious disease,
- authorize the governor to declare a state of infectious disease emergency that would expire in 30 days unless terminated sooner by the governor,
- would authorize the commissioner of the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to make all decisions to contain the emergency,
- require that DSHS communicate with and consider input from local health authorities on all decisions expand control orders for the detention of persons in a state of infectious disease emergency, and
- establish the Task Force on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response as an advisory panel to the governor and require that it include a representative from one urban and one rural local health authority.
The bill as engrossed can be viewed by pasting the following link into your browser: http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/84R/billtext/pdf/SB00538E.pdf#navpanes=0
Upcoming Hearings
House and Senate Committee hearing will continue next week, the latest information can be found by visiting HillCo’s “Legislative News from Texas.” Please note that dates and times are subject to change and additional hearings dates may also be added at any time so you will want to re-visit the page frequently to confirm hearings.
The standing committee hearings as well as floor discussions, live and archived, can be listened to at the following links: House | Senate. Please note that formal hearings may not be broadcasted.
Chamber
The House will reconvene Monday, April 6 at 2pm. House Calendar
The Senate will reconvene Tuesday, April 7 at 11am. Senate Calendar
Video Broadcasts: House | Senate