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January 29, 2007

80th Legislative Session
 The Texas Legislature has now been in session for 21 days of its 140-day session.  AGC Texas Building Branch has its 2007 Legislative package ready to go and has been reviewing the over 1,300 bills that have been filed to date.

Contingent Payment Bill – HB 734 by Representative Chisum and SB 324 by Senator Deuell is the legislation that deals with the use of contingent payment clauses in commercial construction contracts.  The AGC Texas Building Branch and the Texas Construction Association will again work together to pass our bill.

Public Construction Procurement Statute Consolidation – HB 447 by Representative Callegari is the bill that will combine the various public construction procurement statutes that are currently in several different locations in the state’s statutes and consolidate the language into a single statute in the state’s government code.  AGC Texas Building Branch will continue to work with the Texas Consulting Engineering Companies, the Texas Society of Architects and others to pass our bill.

AGC Texas Building Branch to
Keep All Members Up To Date
We need your help
 The heart or 911 part of the AGC Texas Building Branch legislative effort will continue to be our AGC VoterVoice alerts and the prompt response of our members.  As we have said, the opinions from back home carry a lot of weight with your legislators.  AGC members have done an outstanding job of responding to these alerts in the past and we are counting on your help again this year.  A lot of changes have taken place with spam filters, please check your email blockers and make sure you have the AGC VoterVoice on your white list to allow it to get to you so you can answer the call to action.

Keep in mind that you can always get the latest information on legislative issues at the AGC Texas Building Branch website – www.agctbb.org.   Pull up the website and take a look at the list of 22 bills that are currently being reviewed and will be followed during the session.  We are also seeking your thoughts on the various bills – we have a comment button that can be used to send us your thoughts on each of the bills.

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AGC Texas Building Branch 2007 Legislative Communication Plan
 Below you will find a game plan for the communication efforts that will take place by the AGC Texas Building Branch during the 2007 Legislative Session.  As you can see there will be a lot of activity during the session. 

  • VoterVoice emails will be sent on critical legislative issues to all AGC members to initiate communication with legislators on a specific bill or issue.

  • Weekly Legislative email updates will be sent out to AGC members and chapters with highlights of the activities of AGC Texas Building Branch and the Legislature starting on Monday, January 29th.

  • AGC Texas Building Branch Staff will host a 15 minute Legislative Update for all AGC members that will be held twice a month until the end of the Session.  The members will be provided with information on how to dial in to hear the Legislative Update, the time the call will start and the subjects that will be addressed.  The tentative dates are as follows:

  1. Friday, February 9th

  2. Friday, February 23rd

  3. Friday, March 9th

  4. Friday, March 23rd

  5. Wednesday, April 4th (Easter Week)

  6. Friday, April 27th (TBB Board Meeting on 4/20)

  7. Friday, May 11th

  8. Friday, May 25th

  • The AGC Texas Building Branch website will have a list of bills that we are following under a link entitled, “Bills AGC Texas Building Branch is watching”.  Members will be able to link directly to the bill for a copy and will also be able send an email response to AGC with their comments about a specific bill.

  • The AGC Texas Building Branch Legislative Report will be sent to the Board of Directors, Executive Committee and Chapter Executives twice a month through February and then on a weekly basis starting in March.

  • A series of Legislative Conference Calls will allow the Board of Directors, Executive Committee and Chapter Executives to discuss bills that have been introduced.  AGC will take a position on bills where that is appropriate.  The Conference calls will take place on the following dates:

  1.  Monday, February 19th

  2. Friday, March 16th (bill filing deadline is March 9)

  3. Thursday, April 5th

The conference calls will start at 9:30 AM.  AGC Texas Building Branch will record the conference call as a wav file .  The file will be sent to those who could not participate upon request.

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