| 85TH LEGISLATIVE SESSION AT A GLANCE
Senate Bill 1001 (L. Taylor/Paul) will amend the Transportation Code to increase the maximum gross weight under which a trailer, semitrailer, pole trailer or mobile home would be exempt from vehicle safety inspections from 4,500 pounds to 7,500 pounds.
Senate Concurrent Resolution 41 (L. Taylor/Paul) Urging Congress to direct the Department of Defense to relocate the United States Africa Command to Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base in Houston.
ELECTIONS:
HB 2015 by Paul allows the County Chairs of both parties to receive the contact information for those who checked the box on their Voter Registration card that they are interested in working in elections.
House Bill 944 by Paul was amended to Senate Bill 1666. It creates a Class B misdemeanor for preventing a County Chair or their designee from supervising the Primary or observing tabulations in a Primary.
House Bill 2270 by Paul was amended to HB 1735 by Faircloth. The legislation fixes three problems: (1) Provides a new oath for members of the Ballot Board and Central Count that is relevant to their duties. The oath used previously was for polling place workers and applied to influencing voters and was not germane. (2) In Central Count, the Tabulation Supervisor is already required to be a registered voter. Now, in counties of population less than 60,000 the Tabulation Supervisor's Assistant will also have to be a registered voter in the county. (3) The Central Count Manager is required to prepare a written plan. A deadline was added for the plan to be prepared and ready for review by 5:00 p.m. on the 5th day before Election Day.
INSURANCE:
House Bill 1197 will increase from 14 to 30 days the time a temporary license applicant has to complete the required 40-hour training. Temporary licenses are designed for people who are considering a career change to an insurance agent. Many people attempt this transition in their careers while still working in another full-time job in order to provide for themselves or their families.
Senate Bill 1012 (Creighton/Paul) will repeal a manual reporting requirement for all Texas insurers that is duplicated by reporting systems maintained by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). These reporting systems are available to the Texas Department of Insurance, thereby making this manual reporting requirement unnecessarily costly and duplicative for Texas insurers Senate Bill 1171 (Estes/Paul) will amend the insurance code to provide the commissioner of insurance with authority to enter an order to deactivate the TX Health Reinsurance System. It is also recommends that the commissioner be authorized to enter an order to reactivate THRS if needed, such as in response to a change in health care laws or future market capacity concerns. The Texas Health Reinsurance System (THRS) was created by the Texas Legislature to provide reinsurance capacity to health carriers that issue small employer health benefit plans. Although THRS was active for a number of years, it no longer functions as intended by the legislature.
Other legislation Paul supported:
Senate Bill 4: ensures federal immigration laws that are already on the books are followed and enforced by prohibiting local entities from adopting sanctuary city policies which threaten public safety.
Senate Bill 5: Requires the Secretary of State to establish a program using mobile units to provide election identification certificates to voters in order to satisfy the requirements of the voter ID law. The Secretary of State is prohibited from charging a fee for these mobile units.
Senate Bill 7: Expands criminal liability for teacher-student relationships to include educators who target students in other schools or other school districts. The legislation criminalizes a failure to report inappropriate teacher-student relationships. Additionally, it revokes the pension of a teacher convicted of an improper relationship with a student. Finally, the legislation includes provisions for parental notification when an inappropriate teacher-student relationship is alleged.
SB 1663: TX Retirement System clean up bill that makes member friendly benefit changes and administrative updates. SB 1664: TX Retirement System cleanup bill to provide IRS code compliance and statutory corrections SB 1665: TX Retirement System cleanup bill relating to investments to continue the authorization to use derivatives and external managers that we provided in 2007 and renewed in 2011.
Senate Bill 12 Creates a grant program to assist law enforcement agencies with the purchase of bulletproof vests and body armor. SB 669 now empowers taxpayers in two very important ways. First, the bill brings transparency to the tax rate setting process, giving tax payers the tools and information they need - in an easy to understand format - to engage local officials who set tax rates. Second, for those taxpayers who take
part in the protest process, the bill strengthens their rights by making the process fair, accountable and transparent.
House Bill 1774 will discourage property owners from suing insurers over weather-related claims. Supporters of the bill want to crack down on what they characterize as an increase in frivolous lawsuits. Trial lawyers and consumer groups don't deny the existence of a small group of bad actors but say legal action is often warranted and correlates with insurers denying claims.
House Bill 25 eliminates straight-ticket voting in all elections.
To read more about legislation filed throughout the 85th click here.
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