Bill Text: TX HB679 | 2023-2024 | 88th Legislature | Enrolled

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Bill Title: Relating to limitations on the use of workers' compensation insurance experience modifier values in soliciting and awarding public construction contracts.

Sponsorship: Moderate Partisan Bill (Republican 5-1)

Status: (Passed) 2023-06-09 - Effective on 9/1/23 [HB679 Detail]

Download: Texas-2023-HB679-Enrolled.html

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H.B. No. 679

AN ACT
relating to limitations on the use of workers' compensation
insurance experience modifier values in soliciting and awarding
public construction contracts.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter Z, Chapter 2252, Government Code, is
amended by adding Section 2252.909 to read as follows:
Sec. 2252.909. VOIDABLE CONTRACT PROVISION: EXPERIENCE
MODIFIER. (a) In this section:
(1) "Contract" means a contract awarded by a
governmental entity that is:
(A) a construction contract, as defined by
Section 272.0001, Business & Commerce Code; or
(B) a contract for constructing, altering, or
repairing a public building or carrying out or completing any
public work.
(2) "Contract solicitation" means a request for bids,
proposals, qualifications, offers, or other responses from
potential contractors under a contract.
(3) "Experience modifier" means a factor expressed as
a value that:
(A) is assigned to an employer seeking to
purchase a workers' compensation insurance policy in this state;
(B) affects the premium amount for the policy;
and
(C) is based on the employer's past loss
experience.
(4) "Governmental entity" means:
(A) a department, commission, board, office, or
other agency in the executive branch of state government created by
the state constitution or a state statute, including an institution
of higher education as defined by Section 61.003, Education Code;
or
(B) a political subdivision of this state,
including a municipality, county, or special purpose district.
(b) With respect to a contract:
(1) an offer to contract may not contain a term
requiring a person to have a specified experience modifier in order
to accept the offer; and
(2) a contract solicitation may not require a person
to have a specified experience modifier in order to submit a
response to the contract solicitation.
(c) A contract or an agreement collateral to or affecting a
contract may not require the contractor to have a specified
experience modifier.
(d) A contract solicitation, an offer, a contract, or an
agreement collateral to or affecting a contract that violates
Subsection (b) or (c) is voidable as against public policy.
SECTION 2. Section 2252.909, Government Code, as added by
this Act, applies only to a contract for which a governmental entity
first advertises or otherwise solicits offers on or after the
effective date of this Act. A contract for which a governmental
entity first advertised or otherwise solicited offers before the
effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the
date the governmental entity first advertised or otherwise
solicited offers, and that law is continued in effect for that
purpose.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.
______________________________ ______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 679 was passed by the House on April
25, 2023, by the following vote: Yeas 141, Nays 5, 1 present, not
voting; and that the House concurred in Senate amendments to H.B.
No. 679 on May 19, 2023, by the following vote: Yeas 133, Nays 8, 2
present, not voting.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 679 was passed by the Senate, with
amendments, on May 17, 2023, by the following vote: Yeas 31, Nays
0.
______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
APPROVED: __________________
Date
__________________
Governor