84th Legislative Session Wrap Up June 3, 2015

The 84^th Texas Legislature is a wrap. The Texas SHRM Government Affairs/Advocacy team of Kristin Bauer, Pam Bratton and Lon Williams is proud to say we primarily had wins this session and came out relatively unscathed. Texas SHRM worked 17 bills closely out of over 6,474 bills filed.

Here’s a brief synopsis of the session:

HB 931 by Representative Murphy was signed by the Governor and is Effective 9/1/15
This bill moves the waiting week for unemployment compensation to the end of the benefit period. This will encourage job seekers to get re-employed quickly and no longer give incentive to stay unemployed for the full 3 weeks to get paid for this week. We signed cards of support for this bill during hearings.

HB 1251 by Representative Alvarado was sent to the Governor for signature
This bill relates to the transfer of compensation experience for purposes of the Texas Unemployment Compensation Act. We supported this bill

HB 2732 by Representative Metcalf was sent to the Governor for signature
This is relating to the recovery of unemployment compensation debt thought participation in the federal Treasury Offset Program. We supported letting the Feds help us recover unpaid unemployment comp debt through the IRS or other means available on by the government.

We had several bills that we supported that made it to calendars, but never got voted out of either chamber – maybe next year for:

• HB 589 by Burkett/SB 722 by Perry to disqualify claimants for unemployment if they refuse or fail drug screen. We signed in support of this bill.
• HB 934 by Dale to disqualify from benefits individuals who are terminated from employment after giving notice of resignation. We signed in support of this bill, the only opposition was the AFLCIO.
• HB 1155 by Alvarado was a bill to create the Recruit Texas Program to facilitate the relocation to or expansion in this state of employers offering complex or high-skilled employment opportunities. This bill made it out of the House and out of Senate committee, but never got a vote. We supported this bill.
• SB 1248 by West would have given a franchise tax credit for employing certain students in paid internships or similar programs. We signed in support of this bill and expect it to resurface next session.

We opposed these bills and they did NOT pass:

• HB 187 by Sefronia Thompson that would change State law regarding statute of limitations. We opposed this bill because it originally only pertained to Lilly Ledbetter (wage and hour claims), but then was expanded to include all employment practices. We not only signed in opposition, but Lon Williams and his team at Polsinelli crafted a wonderful letter to use in partnership with TAB that was presented to every House member prior to vote. The bill died on the floor. Expect this to continue to appear each session.
• HB 860 by Eddie Rodriguez relating administrative penalties by TWC for retaliation. This bill had some serious employer ramifications, we did not support this bill, but just monitored it.
• HB 1515 by Canales regarding the use of consumer credit reports and providing penalties. This was a very broad stroke bill and we signed in opposing this bill. It died in committee.
• SB 68 by Ellis relating to minimum wage and allowing county or cities to set the wages. We opposed this bill because companies who operate in multiple cities within a same MSA could have a nightmare in wage tracking. It died in committee.