Last night, (2/26/18), the House, after substituting and conforming to Senate Bill 1047, passed an amended version of the Contract Accountability and Responsible Employment (CARE) Act. To view the House vote on the bill, visit this link: https://goo.gl/3tsk1G
On February 15, the Senate passed the amended version of SB1047.
The bill will now be enrolled and presented for approval to both speakers and then transmitted to the Governor for his signature. After this process, barring any unforeseen issues, the bill becomes law.
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.
We appreciate all the hard work Sen. Janice Bowling, Rep. Tilman Goins, Sen. Richard Briggs, Rep. Bob Ramsey, and many others put into this bill.
About the bill:
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.
