84 days remain in the 87th Regular Legislative Session.

The House State Affairs Committee will meet on Thursday, March 11, starting at 8:00 a.m. to hear House Bill 3 (Burrows), relating to state and local government responses to a pandemic disaster. This is not the same HB 3 you've received so many messages about in the past.

Chairman Dustin Burrows' (R-Lubbock) bill is a broad and sweeping piece of legislation that covers many aspects of state and local government response to the pandemic, including the powers and duties of the Governor. It also includes provisions that relate to public schools. Specifically, the section that begins on page 17 of the bill regarding Off-campus Programs Approved for Average Daily Attendance During Pandemic Disaster.

As proposed, this would allow the commissioner of education to approve instructional programs provided off-campus by an entity other than a school district.  Students participating in such a program would qualify for the purpose of determining ADA in the student's district of residence for funding purposes. Students may choose to participate in such a program if their district does not offer full-time in-person instruction. If the district fails to compensate the off-campus instructional program before the 46th day after receiving the bills for those services, the commissioner of education may deduct the amount from the district's formula funding to reimburse the vendor.

If you're not sure whether your local legislator sits on the House State Affairs Committee, you click here to see the membership of that committee.

In case you missed it, you can still catch the legislative update we provided last week by visiting the March Update on the 87th Legislative Session page in the Members Area. There, you can download the PowerPoint slides or a PDF of the presentation. You can also watch the video below to see an abridged version of the presentation.

Keep in mind that this presentation was delivered before the hold harmless extension was granted on Thursday. Like Ferris Bueller taught us, "life moves pretty fast."

The Texas House and Texas Senate both stand adjourned until Tuesday, March 9 at 2:00 and 3:00 p.m., respectively.

The House Ways & Means Committee will meet on Monday, March 8, at 10:00 a.m. to hear six bills, relating to topics such as certain property tax exemptions, accrual of interest on deferrals or abatements of property taxes on certain residences, and the authority to bring suit to compel an appraiser to comply with procedural requirements applicable in a tax protest.

The Senate Local Government Committee will meet on Monday, March 8, at 1:30 p.m. to conduct an organizational hearing.

The House Public Education Committee will meet on Tuesday, March 9, at 8:00 a.m. They will hear eight bills, including:

As mentioned above, the House State Affairs Committee will meet Thursday, March 11, at 8:00 a.m. to hear seven bills, including HB 3.

Additionally, the Senate Finance Committee and House Appropriations Committee will both continue on their work of reviewing each article and agency in the proposed budget bills. Senate Finance workgroups per article have not yet been named, but we expect those as soon as today.

To view any House committee hearings click here to watch live or view archives.

Or to see a Senate hearing click here to watch live or view archives.