Transcript Highlights:

• We're continuing on that track.
• The litigation and rulings, the holdings from the court are that our system is equitable.
• We just need to have fairness in the system, right? I hope I'm restating that. Absolutely, you are.
• And fairness in the system, and not let people find ways to game the system and then, you know, take
• As it relates to the $8 billion that we're putting into this particular, into our school system, what

Bills: HB2

Keywords: disaster preparedness, emergency management, flooding, mass fatality, mass casualty, fatality tracking, body recovery, autopsy, justice of the peace, medical examiner, county judge, sheriff, mayor, emergency coordinator, emergency manager license, volunteer management system, volunteer registration, criminal history check, background check, Texas Division of Emergency Management

Summary: The Senate Education K-16 Committee met to consider HB 2, the major school finance bill, with the chair explaining that the committee substitute would provide about $8 billion in new public education funding. The bill was described as including permanent teacher compensation increases, expanded teacher incentive allotment funding, support for early literacy and numeracy, teacher certification and residency pathways, special education funding, career and technical education, school safety dollars, and facilities support for charter schools. The committee adopted the committee substitute without objection after roll was called and a quorum was present. Members questioned the bill’s structure, especially the balance between across-the-board teacher pay and the teacher incentive allotment, the treatment of uncertified teachers, and differences in requirements between traditional public schools and charter schools. Senator Menendez and Senator West raised concerns about equity, charter-school parity, facilities funding, inflation, and whether the bill should include more support for fine arts and extracurricular programs. The chair responded that the bill was designed to direct most new money to traditional public schools while also preserving flexibility and that charter-school and public-school alignment would need further work. Invited witnesses Dr. Imelda De La Rosa and Val Acri testified in support of the bill, emphasizing that the Teacher Incentive Allotment helps recruit and retain teachers in rural districts and supports mentorship and certification pathways. Public witnesses also supported the bill but urged more funding for fine arts, local flexibility, and full restoration of House-proposed funding levels. Dr. Josh Jones supported year-long teacher residencies, Dr. Philip Morgan asked for more local control and restoration of fine arts funding, Rich Saina supported the bill but warned about hold-harmless reductions, and Dr. Greg Poole supported the bill while asking for flexibility for high-performing districts that already pay high salaries. After the invited testimony and some public testimony, the committee recessed subject to the call of the chair so members could attend the Senate floor.

Transcript Highlights:

• We work with school systems and higher ed partners to improve educational outcomes.
• So I personally help work with a number of school systems to help implement policies that have... ...
• help work with a number of school systems to help implement policies that have passed that come with
• My precocious son would ask you all, why do you continue to create systems with all of these strings
• attached for our public education system?

Bills: HB2

Keywords: disaster preparedness, emergency management, flooding, mass fatality, mass casualty, fatality tracking, body recovery, autopsy, justice of the peace, medical examiner, county judge, sheriff, mayor, emergency coordinator, emergency manager license, volunteer management system, volunteer registration, criminal history check, background check, Texas Division of Emergency Management

Summary: The committee continued public testimony on House Bill 2, which would make major changes to public school funding, teacher pay, special education, early learning, school safety, and related programs. Many superintendents and education advocates supported the bill’s overall direction but urged changes, especially a larger basic allotment and more flexible funding for rural and small districts. Witnesses from Paint Creek, West Hardin, Cushing, Blooming Grove, Mildred, Buffalo, Plano, and rural school groups said the bill’s targeted raises and new requirements would not fully cover inflation, TRS/Medicare costs, transportation, insurance, or support staff salaries, and several asked the committee to restore the House version’s higher basic allotment and small-school allotment. Charter school representatives supported the facilities funding changes and said charter schools need state help because they cannot levy taxes, while also noting the funding gap with ISDs. Fine arts advocates asked the committee to restore the fine arts allotment, arguing arts improve engagement, attendance, and academic outcomes, especially in rural and at-risk communities. Early learning and special education witnesses supported parts of the bill but raised concerns about pre-K restrictions, disability-related pre-K access, and the need to preserve or clarify special education provisions and mental health oversight language. Several witnesses praised the teacher pay raise, teacher incentive allotment expansion, and teacher preparation investments, saying they would help recruit and retain educators and improve student outcomes. Others, including counselors and support staff advocates, argued the bill should also include raises for counselors, nurses, librarians, bus drivers, custodians, aides, and other non-teaching employees who keep schools running. One witness from the Texas Counseling Association opposed the substitute because it removed a counselor pay provision, warning of counselor shortages and inequities. A parent and special education advocate said the bill’s structure creates too many strings attached and asked for a larger basic allotment instead of more targeted funding. Another witness from Mental Health America urged keeping the collaborative task force on public school mental health services through 2031, and a disability rights advocate said the committee substitute appears to omit some special education items that were in the House version. The committee also briefly took up House Bill 6, a school discipline bill. After questions about automatic mandatory expulsion for vape possession and concerns about younger students, the committee adopted the substitute and voted to report HB 6 favorably to the full Senate by a 9-1 vote, with Senator Menendez voting no and Senators West and Menendez expressing reservations but supporting further discussion. After that vote, testimony on HB 2 resumed. Senators used the hearing to ask about the bill’s cost, the difference between the basic allotment and the bill’s targeted funding buckets, and whether the permanent teacher pay increase shifts pressure off districts. The bill’s supporters emphasized that it represents an historic, roughly $8 billion investment and that many of the new funding streams are intended to be permanent or to address specific district needs.

Transcript Highlights:

• irritated because his driver's license was lost in the mail and didn't understand why he couldn't track
• It directs Service Oklahoma to implement a system that allows applicants to track the mailing status
• system.
• Yes, so the tracking service would be on anything that is mailed to the customer and then or the citizen
• That is the last time that I looked at putting a tracking number on that type of envelope.

Bills: SB1220, SB1221, SB1239, SB1309, SB1349, SB1434, SB1516, SB1531, SB1538, SB1861

Keywords: memorial designation, interchange, Terry Walker, transportation, Oklahoma, driver license, tracking system, expedited delivery, Service Oklahoma, REAL ID, public safety, apportionment, state revenue, funding, vehicle registration, infrastructure, state roads, bridges, economic development, highway construction

Transcript Highlights:

• development, set priorities, and system development, set priorities, and track<00:38:05.760> funding
• integration and tracking.
• The system is failing them. And capable. The system is failing them.
• With a modern system, a worker.
• uh and it's made worse by these systems. uh and it's made worse by these systems.

Bills: HF4421, HF1937, HF4675, HF4715, HF4684

Keywords: county cost share, economically distressed county, human services finance, substance use disorder treatment, SUD services, civil commitment, state aid, county levy, poverty threshold, tax-exempt acreage, property tax exemption, Minnesota human services, county fiscal relief, local government finance, chemical dependency, behavioral health, PACE, elderly, Medicaid, health services

Transcript Highlights:

• This would require the training of the employees on the use of that system. the use of that system would
• I really can't... there's actually sort of two separate types of systems I think that might... of systems
• If you have this system, but... about if you have this system, but you could use cell phones, which people
• have such systems in place. systems that already have such in place, but it's more so just to allow schools
• Most of these systems, to my knowledge, Most of these systems, to my knowledge, work off of Wi-Fi systems

Bills: HB205, HB226, HB234

Keywords: sales tax, use tax, exemption, tax conformity, tangible personal property, Alabama Department of Revenue, retail tax, consumer use tax, nonresident, religious publications, church magazines, Bible class materials, Sunday school materials, tax administration, indirect tax, state revenue, HB226, homestead exemption, ad valorem tax, property tax

Transcript Highlights:

• The money that goes to the teacher retirement system.
• To make our TRS system actuarially sound. this bill.
• It depends on when they join the system. Most people are at five.
• the system, but they've also been in the system longer and that means that there's a shorter period
• . system today than before the pandemic.

Bills: HB2, HB2

Keywords: public education, teacher compensation, certification, funding, school finance, educator rights, education funding, charter schools, staff compensation, state aid, retention allotment, disaster preparedness, emergency management, flooding, mass fatality, mass casualty, fatality tracking, body recovery, autopsy, justice of the peace

Transcript Highlights:

• the actuarial note on House Bill 2 has language in it that I read as making our teacher retirement system
• this but lbb and trs to understand the implications and the impact back to our teacher retirement system
• Today, Texas is still facing significant challenges in the public education system.
• Vasquez stated the surplus is a result of underfunding our public school system.
• , it will further weaken the teacher retirement system.

Bills: HB2, HB2

Keywords: public education, teacher compensation, certification, funding, school finance, educator rights, education funding, charter schools, staff compensation, state aid, retention allotment, disaster preparedness, emergency management, flooding, mass fatality, mass casualty, fatality tracking, body recovery, autopsy, justice of the peace

Transcript Highlights:

• We encountered some challenges in how the data was applied to the proposed new system.
• 25-26 school year. to be a time for training and refinement of the new proposed system.
• We can use this data to make recommendations. and calibrate the new system.
• might look like and what personnel needs may arise to put this system in place.
• We utilized the RTI system as a way to gatekeep that percentage.

Bills: HB2, HB2

Keywords: public education, teacher compensation, certification, funding, school finance, educator rights, education funding, charter schools, staff compensation, state aid, retention allotment, disaster preparedness, emergency management, flooding, mass fatality, mass casualty, fatality tracking, body recovery, autopsy, justice of the peace

Transcript Highlights:

• to a service intensity-based system.
• A service-intensity-based system involves a tiered system for the initial service-intensity decisions
• top to bottom the entire system.
• additional incentives are given to schools. school systems, implementing enhanced systems as we have
• The TIA systems in these 597 school systems cover more than 69% of the population. of Texas students

Bills: HB2, HB2

Keywords: public education, teacher compensation, certification, funding, school finance, educator rights, education funding, charter schools, staff compensation, state aid, retention allotment, disaster preparedness, emergency management, flooding, mass fatality, mass casualty, fatality tracking, body recovery, autopsy, justice of the peace

Transcript Highlights:

• My name is Rob Davis, and I serve as chief growth officer for the Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System
• Adding a union hydrogen tracking system will create substantial economic benefits throughout Minnesota
• The rebate would go to the entity that registers with the Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System and
• Entities that start using this system will have a lower upfront cost of using the system.
• This is different from most of the purchase power that we have on our system.

Bills: HF2103, HF2793

Keywords: energy, renewable energy, ammonia, hydrogen, certificate tracking, funding, environment, community solar, energy policy, sustainability, solar garden program, regulation sunset

Transcript Highlights:

• This system is costly, inefficient, and unsustainable.
• He said libraries don't operate in a free market system.
• He said libraries don't operate in a free market system.
• traditional at large standard system. traditional at large standard system.
• Um, I've discussed to change the system.

Bills: HF3698, HF4243, HF4239, HF4241, HF4242, HF4240

Keywords: libraries, electronic books, digital audiobooks, licensing agreements, public access, campaign finance, elections, political contributions, disclosure, reporting thresholds, economic interest statements, financial disclosure, ethics, public officials, local officials, metropolitan governmental unit, metropolitan area, candidate filings, principal campaign committee, political committee

Transcript Highlights:

• My name is Rob Davis, and I serve as chief growth officer for the Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System
• and upfront cost of using the system and upfront cost of using the system and then<00:15:34.959
• <00:16:01.160> is the entire region so our our system is the entire region so our our system
• for for interconnection with our system for for interconnection with our system and<01:04:22.240
• We have a compromise system that’s working.

Bills: HF2103, HF2793

Keywords: energy, renewable energy, ammonia, hydrogen, certificate tracking, funding, environment, community solar, energy policy, sustainability, solar garden program, regulation sunset, 1183, house

Bills: SF0027, SF0124

Keywords: game management, hunting regulations, black bear, tracking dogs, wildlife conservation, tourism, economic development, rodeo, cowboy heritage, Wyoming, funding, cultural preservation, 916, all

Transcript Highlights:

• they eliminate the electronic tracking they eliminate the electronic tracking of<00:20:30.640>
• You can track cash.
• thing is that there's no way to track thing is that there's no way to track this<00:58:21.359>
• You can track cash. Um, serial numbers. You can track cash.
• fractured um and hard to track for us. fractured um and hard to track for us.

Bills: HF3642, HF2700, HF3615

Keywords: virtual currency, kiosks, prohibition, customer payouts, cryptocurrency regulation, consumer privacy, data privacy, health data, sensitive data, Minnesota Consumer Data Privacy Act, personal data, data broker, targeted advertising, geofencing, location tracking, health care privacy, patient privacy, consent, minor privacy, children's privacy

Summary: The Commerce Finance and Policy Committee met on House File 3642, which would prohibit virtual currency kiosks in Minnesota. The bill was laid over, and the committee adopted a DE1 author’s amendment. Chair Kaggel and Representative Perryman described the measure as a response to widespread scams using crypto kiosks, especially against older adults and other vulnerable people, and said they would continue working with the Department of Commerce and other stakeholders. Testimony from law enforcement and advocates strongly supported the ban. A St. Cloud police sergeant and a Woodbury detective described cases in which victims lost large sums, said the current safeguards and refund rules are being bypassed, and argued that the kiosks are difficult to investigate because funds move quickly and often overseas. An AARP Minnesota volunteer also supported the bill, saying kiosks are a preferred tool for scammers and that existing protections have not kept pace with the problem. The Department of Commerce said it strongly supports the bill and reported that it has received 120 complaints over three years involving nearly $1 million in reported losses, with 2025 the worst year so far. The main opposition came from CoinFlip’s general counsel, who argued that the problem is fraud generally, not kiosks themselves, and said Minnesota already has consumer protections, including refunds for eligible victims. He urged stronger regulation rather than a ban, citing blockchain analytics, hold periods, and 24-hour customer service as alternatives. Committee members then asked questions about how long kiosks have operated in Minnesota, how many there are, who owns them, and the scale of losses; Commerce said there are hundreds statewide, operated by a variety of companies, and that reported losses are likely undercounts.

Transcript Highlights:

• They had 7,000 pediatric cases in the poison data system there. We're trying to head that off.
• Poison data system there. We're trying to head that off.
• One can track movements by tracking where the license plate was going at various points in time.
• Discourse by preventing state government entities from using license plate data and readers to track,
• **Senate Bill 40** helps ensure that our public systems do not unintentionally become a part of that

Bills: HB294, SB40, SB43, SB35

Keywords: cannabis, cannabis packaging, cannabis labeling, cannabis regulation, Cannabis Control Division, adulterated cannabis, artificial color additive, food dye, youth appeal, minor appeal, child-resistant packaging, black-and-white packaging, edibles, product labeling, consumer protection, marijuana, hemp, dispensary, licensed cannabis business, cannabis manufacturer

Transcript Highlights:

• It kind of fixes a glitch in the DROP system.
• the sheriffs and other systems.
• That system.
• Well, she's still paying into the retirement system, where he's still paying into the retirement system
• And I guess one more question for the system.

Bills: HB17, HB21, HB24, HB41, HB42, HB45, HB1134, HB1237

Keywords: HB 17, District Attorneys' Retirement System, retirement system, reemployed retiree, reemployment, supplemental retirement benefit, service credit, benefit suspension, public retirement, district attorney, assistant district attorney, Louisiana District Attorneys' Association, employer reporting, annual report, retirement benefits, state employees, local funds, state funds, Municipal Employees' Retirement System, part-time retirees

Transcript Highlights:

• , we, to keep the pension system whole, we have made... ...to keep the pension system whole, we have
• House Bill 2193 is a COLA for state retirement systems.
• Same for some of the other systems. I didn't cap it on all the systems.
• Same for some of the other systems.
• The anticipated cost for our system, and I believe the police pension system was included in this, for

Bills: HB1784, HB1245, HB1268, HB2116, HB2193, HB2206, HB1739, HB1889, HB1904, HB3172, HB4225, HB4352, HB3625, HB4263

Keywords: education reform, local control, student outcomes, curriculum changes, school funding, retirement, pension, public employees, Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System, benefits, survivorship, contribution rates, disability retirement, deferred option plan, service credit, contributions, distributions, HB2116, Oklahoma Law Enforcement Retirement System, OLERS

Transcript Highlights:

• You might remember it's a leash-dogs-for-tracking-black-bear bill.
• Uh, just a u to track that animal.
• And they'll they'll they'll track<01:04:24.799> it.
• They'll watch their movements track it.
• > you<01:04:44.000> know, them out of the track chair, you know, them out of the track

Bills: SF0025, SF0027, SF0043, SF0066

Keywords: landowner licenses, hunting, wildlife management, quota hunt areas, game and fish commission, game management, hunting regulations, black bear, tracking dogs, wildlife conservation, conservation, contracting, supervisor, funding, districts, hunting licenses, donated licenses, life-threatening illness, vision impairment, nonprofit organizations

Transcript Highlights:

• Chairman, Representative Wharff, that is not something that we, that the commissioners, track.

Bills: SF0025, SF0027, SF0043, SF0066

Keywords: landowner licenses, hunting, wildlife management, quota hunt areas, game and fish commission, game management, hunting regulations, black bear, tracking dogs, wildlife conservation, conservation, contracting, supervisor, funding, districts, hunting licenses, donated licenses, life-threatening illness, vision impairment, nonprofit organizations

Transcript Highlights:

• For example, they have over there an amazing computerized system where you can walk into the middle of
• community college, you know, to the extent we teach CTE and ag in the classroom in our K-through-2 system
• community college, you know, to the extent we teach CTE and ag in the classroom in our K-through-2 system

Bills: SF0025, SF0027, SF0043, SF0066

Keywords: landowner licenses, hunting, wildlife management, quota hunt areas, game and fish commission, game management, hunting regulations, black bear, tracking dogs, wildlife conservation, conservation, contracting, supervisor, funding, districts, hunting licenses, donated licenses, life-threatening illness, vision impairment, nonprofit organizations