Legislative Update – March 1

Deadlines

March 8^th is the 60^th day of the 86^th Session and it also marks the deadline for unrestricted filing of bills and joint resolutions other than local bills, emergency appropriations, and emergency matters submitted by the governor.

Chamber/Hearings

The latest hearing 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 House will reconvene on March 4^th, 5^th and 6^th of next week.

The Senate will reconvene on Friday, March 1^st at 10 a.m.

Video Broadcasts (Committee hearings and floor discussions): House | Senate

Senate Update

Senate Nominations presented the following names before the Senate chamber and the Senate unanimously confirmed them on 2/27:

• Courtney Phillips, Executive Commissioner of HHSC
• Shelly Botkin, Arthur D’Andrea, and DeAnn Walker, PUC
• Emily Lindley, TCEQ

Also on 2/28 Senate Nominations voted to advance Secretary of State nomination David Whitely with 4 ayes and 3 nays along party lines. His nomination can now be considered by the full Senate which would require a 2/3^rd majority to be confirmed.

The Senate increased the number of members serving on the Committee on Higher Education from 7 to 9 members – Senator Flores and Menendez will serve as the additional two members.

Senate Calendar

The Senate calendar now has posted SB 2 (Bettencourt) Property Tax, SB 10 (Nelson) creating the Texas Mental Health Care Consortium, and SB 3 (Nelson) teacher salaries. For more details on the calendars see below in our Client Advisory.

Budget

Chair Jane Nelson has assigned the budget working groups as follows:

• Huffman to chair the workgroups on Articles I, IV, & V. Team will include: Flores; Hancock; Whitmire.
• Kolkhorst to chair the workgroup on Article II. Team will include: Campbell; Flores; Watson.
• Taylor to chair the workgroup on Article III (public education). Team will include: Bettencourt; Perry; West.
• Bettencourt to chair the workgroup on Article III (higher education). Team will include: Campbell; Handcock; Watson.
• Nichols to chair the workgroups on Articles VI, VII, & VIII. Team will include: Birdwell; Hinojosa; Perry.

Committee Spotlight

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SB 3 (Nelson) relating to additional funding to school districts for classroom teacher salaries was laid out in Senate Finance on 2/25. The committee substitute of the bill was intended to clarify that district may not use the dollars to supplant current salaries and that the state must cover cost of TR increases as a result of the pay raise. The committee also adopted an amendment that would clarify charter school teachers get the pay raise as well and an amendment to help clarify the increase is intended to be permanent. The bill as substituted and amended was voted out of committee unanimously.

HB 10 (Thompson) relating to mental health was laid out in House Public Health on 2/27. Rep. Thompson noted the bill was designed to be research-driven as he laid out the committee substitute for HB 10. The substitute is intended to add additional medical entities and personnel to the bill. The bill was left pending in committee.

HB 2 (Burrows) relating to ad valorem taxation was laid out in House Ways and Means on 2/27. A group of 24 Mayors across Texas offered testimony that rather than a flat percentage for rollback, they would like to come up with a formula on the rate that would work with various cost drivers in the various cities. After almost 12 hours of testimony, the bill was left pending.

The Committee on Redistricting met on 2/28 and received an update on the upcoming 2020 Census process and other updates regarding the redistricting process.

Bills/Issues on the Move Spotlight

HB 4 (Zerwas) – the supplemental budget bill will be taken up in House Appropriations on 3/7.

SB 1264 (Hancock)/ TBD (Martinez Fisher) relating to consumer protections against billing and limitations on information reported by consumer reporting agencies, is intended to address surprise medical billing and provide certain consumer protections among other things according to the press release, was filed on 2/28.

SB 15 (Hancock) relating to the regulation by a municipality or county of certain employment benefits and policies was passed out of Senate State Affairs, as substituted, with 5 ayes and 1 nay on 2/28. The bill will now move to the full Senate for further consideration.

House Public Education will meet on March 5 to take up bills and hear invited testimony on the state assessment system.