House Public Education Chairman Brad Buckley filed a package of three bills last Thursday related to education: HB 2 public school finance including teacher pay raises, HB 3 education savings accounts, and HB 4 accountability and testing. House Speaker Dustin Burrows has referred to HB 2 and HB 3 as the “Texas Two Step” signaling the lower chamber’s intent to move the two bills forward together. Additionally, Representative Jeff Leach filed HB 6 relating to public school discipline. The Public Education Committee will convene Tuesday to hear invited testimony from state agencies related to public education and the Tri Agency Workforce Initiative. Meanwhile, the Senate Education K-16 Committee advanced SB 26, its version of a teacher pay raise bill, late last week.
The Senate passed a trio of bail reform bills last Wednesday with bipartisan support. Collectively, these bills address the release of defendants on bail, the use of public funds to pay bail bonds and includes a constitutional amendment referred to as Jocelyn's Law. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick released a statement following passage of the bills.
House Appropriations Chairman Greg Bonnen named subcommittee members last week. The Appropriations Subcommittees will meet this week to receive testimony from the various state agencies under their jurisdictions as they work on their version of the state budget. Senate Finance Committee Workgroups have also been named by Senator Joan Huffman.
Other committees in both chambers are scheduled to meet this week. A complete list of House committee hearings can be found here. The Senate Business & Commerce Committee is scheduled to take up Lieutenant Governor Patrick’s legislative priority related to the Texas electric grid while the Senate Health and Human Services Committee will consider, SB 25, his priority related to Making Texas Healthy Again.
With less than three weeks remaining before the March 14th bill filing deadline, legislators have already filed more than 4,500 bills.
Speaker Burrows intends to convene the House Tuesday through Thursday this week. The Senate is expected to follow a similar schedule. Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock will address a joint session of the legislature Wednesday morning to deliver the biennial State of the Judiciary.
