Last Week

The Budget/Conference Committee
Both chambers named their conferees for SB 1 (the budget) last week. The Committee is made up of five members from each chamber:

Senate Conferees:
Senator Ogden, Chair
Senator Hinojosa
Senator Shapiro
Senator West
Senator Williams

House Conferees:
Rep. Pitts, Chair
Rep. Raymond
Rep. McClendon
Rep. Otto
Rep. Zerwas

The committee met for the first time on Wednesday at which time they heard an overview of the differences between the two versions of the bill from LBB staff. On Friday morning a smaller group of conferees met to hear an overview of Article III (Education) of the budget. The smaller workgroup on education met in private on Sunday to work primarily on the public education portion of Art. III.

The House
On Friday the House passed out HB 2083 by Solomons (and 85 coauthors) with a vote of 142 to 0. Included in the bill was an amendment, agreed to by the Governor, which would link future increases in employees eligible to increases in student enrollment growth. The bill as amended has been sent on to Senate – TACC expects the bill to be referred to the Senate Finance Committee where the companion bill, SB 41, has been sitting since February.

One other bill of significance to pass out of the House last week was HB 3, which is the House version of the rewrite of public school accountability. The House had full calendars each day. Now that the pace has increased the House is quickly catching up with the pace set last session.

The Senate
The Senate is also moving at a quickened pace. Bills of significance that passed this past week in the Senate included SB 857 by West, which is the modernization of community college purchasing statues. Also, SB 1895 by Gallegos, which would require all members of the community college boards of trustees to have 4 year staggered terms of office.

The Week Ahead

Conference Committee on the Budget
The committee will continue to meet and adopt sections of the budget as agreement is reached. Art. III, and higher education in particular, will be one of the last areas in which agreement will be reached. TACC expects the various workgroups and the full committee to continue to deliberate over the next several weeks before completing the budget agreement.

House
The House continues to have full agendas/calendars each day including Saturdays. Monday of this week will be dominated by HB 4765 by Oliveira, which is the effort to adjust the revised franchise tax from last session. The House Calendars Committee is meeting often to set daily calendars for consideration but as with most sessions these calendars are only one to two days out. This means those around the Capitol do not know what the House will be considering on the floor three to four days into the future.

Senate
The Senate also continues to meet and hear numerous bills each day. We expect that the Senate will now begin to meet each Saturday until the end of session.

House Higher Education Committee
The Committee is scheduled to meet on Wednesday at 2:00 pm or upon the adjournment of the House. Clicking on the following link can access the Committee’s agenda:

House Higher Ed Agenda

Senate Higher Education
Has not posted a Hearing yet for this week but will most likely do so by the end of the Monday. Currently there are numerous bills (including newly referred House bills) in the committee waiting to be heard.