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May 27, 2011 |
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Public Private Partnership Bill
The P3
legislation, SB 1048 by Senator Mike Jackson/Representative John Davis was
passed by the House with amendments. It has been sent back to the Senate
where the amendments will either be accepted or they will head to conference
committee to resolve the differences in the versions of the bill. |
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Alternative Delivery Bill
Ready
HB 628 by Representative Callegari/Senator Mike Jackson was passed by
the Senate on Tuesday. The House refused to accept the Senate
amendments and the bill is in conference committee to work out the
differences. The conference committee version of the bill is expected
to be considered by the House and Senate this weekend |
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School Background Checks Bill Passes Respective Chambers
Both
school background checks technical corrections legislation bills have been
passed by the Legislature. They are HB 398 by Representative Jim Jackson
and SB 1042 by Senator Hegar. |
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Bills Sent to Governor HB 1390 by Representative Deshotel – TCA/ABC/AGC compromise retainage notice bill.
SB 764 by Senator Williams – SE Texas AGC bill which prohibits use of school
funds to build a hotel. |
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Breach of Contract Amendment
The language from HB 1041 by Representative Paul Workman on the breach of
state contracts issue has been added as an amendment to SB 1811, which is
one of the key fiscal matters bills that will make the budget bill work.
Both the House and Senate have appointed their conferees to work out the
differences on SB 1811. Word around the Capitol is that the final version
of SB 1811 is in the hands of the two chairs, the Governor, Lt. Governor and
the Speaker – so much for influencing conferees |
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Immigration Bills
HB 12 by Representative Burt Solomons and SB 9 by Senator Tommy Williams are
the key immigration bills. HB 12 is the sanctuary city bill and SB 9 is the
border security bill. There are no bills that are in play requiring the
e-verify program. The groups supporting e-verify will continue to look for
opportunities to add their language right up to end of the Legislative
Session. |
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State Budget
It is going to come down to the final hours on getting a deal on the state
budget for the next two years. The fly in the ointment is the public
education funding piece of the pie. It still appears that the House and
Senate have a wide gap in how they want to approach this issue. The House
is leaning toward a solution that addresses the bigger funding issues for a
two year period, while the Senate wants to find a solution that could work
for 4 to 5 years. |
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Final Days - Sine Die on Monday
The final weekend is devoted to adopting conference committee reports.
These are bills with amendments that the House and Senate did not accept, so
they go to conference committee to attempt to reach a compromise.
Conference committee bills cannot be amended by either legislative body.
Sine die occurs on Monday, May 30th. |
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AGC Web Site Has Legislative Information
Don’t forget that the AGC TBB website –
www.agctbb.org has information about bills that are being followed by
AGC. The state’s Texas Legislature Online website -
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/ is another good source for AGC members
to keep track of all the issues that the 82nd Texas Legislature
is dealing with this session |