Per the rules of the Texas Legislature, as of Friday, the last bills have been filed for the 89th Regular Session. In total, more than 8,600 bills were filed, versus 8,046 in the 88th Session. After weeks of organization and behind the scenes work, the Legislature is now in full work mode.
Several items on IBAT’s priority list are already seeing action. Senate and House committees have heard IBAT priority legislation, including expansion of the Financial Crimes Intelligence Center to include check fraud and wire fraud.
To bolster these efforts, IBAT is supporting a bill creating a state-level offense for mail theft-related check fraud and adding a new criminal offense for the theft of a mail arrow key. Other legislation increases the penalties for check fraud, increases both forgery penalties and the penalty for stealing or receiving a stolen check. Several bills on deed fraud and notary fraud have also been introduced.
Last week also saw the reintroduction of legislation addressing the interchange of taxes and tips. The bills, introduced by Chairman Drew Darby (HB 4124) and Chair Donna Campbell (SB 2026), mandate the amount of state or local taxes and added gratuity be listed separately on a payment invoice. They further require the payment card network to deduct the amount of the imposed tax and gratuity from the calculation of interchange at the time of settlement; or rebate the merchant in an amount equal to the swipe fees at the time of settlement. If the merchant is unable to capture and transmit this information, then the card network must accept proof of the tax or fee amounts and tips collected on sales subject to a swipe fee on the merchant’s submission of the sales and provide the rebate no later than 180 days after the transaction.
IBAT is actively working with the financial trade associations to express our concerns about the bill. If we begin to see them make progress with a scheduled hearing, IBAT will issue a call to action. For now, if you are a constituent of Representative Darby or Senator Campbell, please reach out to them and express your concerns about the operability of this legislation and the limited impact it would have, only affecting Texas-chartered banks. Please contact Wendy Foster with questions.
Finally, legislation (HB 1049, SB 2002) calling for the creation of a state-issued currency backed by gold, has been filed by Representative Mark Dorazio and Chairman Bryan Hughes, respectively. IBAT has met with the Chairman and is working with the House committee members to express our deep concern and opposition to these proposals.
