House Finance passes Contract Accountability bill

TSEA February 21, 2018 Comments Off on House Finance passes Contract Accountability bill
House Finance passes Contract Accountability bill

The House Finance Committee this week (2/20/18) passed an amended version of HB944, the Contract Accountability and Responsible Employment (CARE) Act, on to the Calendar and Rules Committee

Last week, the Senate passed the companion bill, SB1047, by unanimous vote


About the bill:

SB1047/HB944 is sponsored by Sen. Janice Bowling and Rep. Tilman Goins, was studied extensively over the summer, and is part of TSEA’s legislative agenda.

In summary, this bill as amended states that if a contract for services between a state agency and a private party is in excess of two and one-half million dollars and results in a furlough or layoff for 1 or more state employees, the agency must provide an economic impact statement (EIS) to the fiscal review committee. For the purposes of this section of code, “state agency” also includes institutions of higher
education.

This EIS shall be submitted to fiscal review for distribution to the members of the general assembly no less than 45 days prior to the execution of the contract.

The chair of fiscal review may then schedule a hearing to review the EIS.

A state agency notified of an EIS hearing shall provide the fiscal review committee, upon request, any information reasonably related to the proposed contract that the committee deems relevant; provided, that a state agency is not required to produce privileged information or any record that is not open for public inspection pursuant to state law.

This bill applies only to contracts procured on and after the effective date of this act