Texas Legislative Update:

Association for Responsible Alternatives

to Workers' Compensation

Texas Legislative Update & Call to Action:

May 19, 2021

Dear ARAWC Members,

Thursday, May 13, at midnight was the first significant procedural deadline for the Texas legislative session regarding filed legislation. All House bills that were not already heard on the House floor by midnight on Thursday were procedurally killed.

As a result of that deadline, we have a much clearer picture of what workers' comp related legislation is still moving. The bill tracker is available here, with a "progress chart" that shows where each bill is in the process. At this point, if there are only one or two green boxes next to a bill, it has very little chance of passing.

I do want to highlight four bills in particular:

SB 6 - the COVID liability protections bill has passed out of the House committee and is in the Calendars Committee. I received a request from the Texas Civil Justice League to help work the calendars committee to get the bill set for a House floor vote, and have told them I would help. It is close to passing.
HB 3769 - the not workers' compensation substitutes bill that we negotiated with TALHI has now been voted out of the Senate committee as-is, ready for a floor vote. Senator Zaffirini has agreed to carry the bill in the Senate and has also agreed to put our recommended legislative intent language into the record.
SB 713 - Senator Buckingham's bill that moves several agencies under Sunset review back two years is out of House committee. This bill is important because TDI, DWC and all insurance related agencies are being recommended to move back to 2023 review.
And most importantly for this update, HB 3752 was heard Tuesday, May 18 at 8:00 AM in the Senate Business & Commerce Committee. HB 3752 is the bill that ARAWC was working to oppose, but on Monday, May 17 Chairman Frank met with Senator Hancock on the Senate floor to revive the bill. As a result, ARAWC rallied our members to send in emails and phone calls to Senator Hancock's office, and our ARAWC Texas Government Liaison Ryan Brannan, testified regarding ARAWC's concerns with the bill on the Senate floor Tuesday morning.

Call to Action:

We are still working to fight this legislation, and ask that ARAWC members continue calling and emailing to express your opposition to HB 3752 to Senator Hancock:

The Honorable Kelly Hancock:

Phone: (512) 463-0109

Email: kelly.hancock@senate.texas.gov

The highlights of our reasons opposing HB 3752, which should be expressed to Senator Hancock's office, are below:

Not limited to Rural Markets
No Product Limitations or Requirements
Not Limited to Small Employers
Promotes Monopolistic Control Over Texas Insurance Markets
No TMIC Liability for its Products or Operations
Premise Not Established

Please convey to Chairman Hancock that the last-minute changes to this bill are being done in haste with unknown and potentially significant negative ramifications to multiple insurance markets and only an independent study should be conducted.

For a full review of ARAWC's opposition to HB 3752, please review the ARAWC one-pager here.

I would like to thank ARAWC membership for your work in opposing HB 3752 and protecting ARAWC member interests. In particular, Jennifer Hurless who drafted a proposed amendment with significant changes, Bill Minick who drafted talking points, and Karl Seelbach for alerting me to other groups that were opposing this legislation so that we could work together.

More to come in my next update, and I'm proud to have worked with so many of you to continue making ARAWC's voice heard in the Texas Senate.

Best regards,

Ryan Brannan, JD, MBA

ARAWC Government Relations Consultant

Please contact ARAWC at info@arawc.org if you are having difficulty accessing the documents in the Members' Only section, or if you have any questions or concerns.

@ 2021 Association for Responsible Alternatives to Workers' Compensation (ARAWC).