The bills below could impact transportation for people with disabilities in Texas.
Transportation Bills — Passed
BILL | AUTHOR | DESCRIPTION, REMARKS, LAST ACTION |
HB 100 | Chris Paddie | Relating to the regulation of transportation network companies. |
no data | no data | Remarks: Provides comprehensive state regulation of the Transportation Network Companies (TNC) like Uber/Lyft, including insurance, fares, identification of drivers and vehicles, methods of payment and receipt, national criminal background checks, bars to employment, passenger behavior, intoxication, and nondiscrimination and accessibility. |
no data | no data | Last Action: 05-29-17 G Earliest effective date |
HB 1434 | Ron Simmons | Relating to displaying certain informational materials and videos in driver's license offices. |
no data | no data | Remarks: Requires the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to display informational materials and videos on driving with autism developed by an appropriate entity, as determined by TxDOT. |
no data | no data | Last Action: 09-01-17 G Earliest effective date |
SB 1790 | Joe Pickett | Relating to revoked disabled parking placards. |
no data | no data | Remarks: Allows a person for whom an accessible parking placard was seized to simply reapply rather than the current process which requires a hearing to determine whether the revocation should continue or the placard should be returned to the person. |
no data | no data | Last Action: 09-01-17 G Earliest effective date |
HB 2501 | Larry Phillips | Relating to insurance requirements for certain non-emergency medical transportation. |
no data | no data | Remarks: Allows non-emergency medical transportation to be included as insurance benefits provided by Transportation Network Companies like Uber/Lyft. |
no data | no data | Last Action: 09-01-17 G Earliest effective date |
SB 402 | Judith Zaffirini | Relating to notice provided to persons with disabilities regarding the eligibility of persons with disabilities to use certain public transportation services. |
no data | no data | Remarks: Requires, as practicable within available resources, public transportation providers to notify individuals with disabilities that they are entitled to use another provider's services for up to 21 days without another application. |
no data | no data | Last Action: 09-01-17 G Earliest effective date |
SB 1051 | Kirk Watson | Relating to the accommodation of a deaf or hard of hearing student in driver education. |
no data | no data | Remarks: Requires the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation to create a driver education course for teens and adults in American Sign Language. |
no data | no data | Last Action: 09-01-17 G Earliest effective date |
Transportation Bills — Not Passed
BILL | AUTHOR | DESCRIPTION, REMARKS, LAST ACTION |
HB 2979 | Stephanie Klick | Relating to the punishment for certain offenses involving parking in a space designated for persons with disabilities. |
no data | no data | Remarks: Would have allowed the court to order a person who commits a first offense involving a parking space reserved for people with disabilities to: 1) perform community service at a non-profit organization that serves people with disabilities; 2) perform community service that makes them aware of the needs and obstacles faced by people with disabilities; and 3) attend an educational class on disability awareness and accessible parking. |
no data | no data | Last Action: 03-22-17 H Introduced and referred to committee on House Transportation |
HB 3146 | Mary Gonzalez | Relating to a pilot program for providing services to certain children under the Medicaid medical transportation program. |
no data | no data | Remarks: Would have required HHSC to implement a multi-region pilot for eligible children to receive medical transportation program services and provide reimbursement for those services. The child would have been eligible for inclusion in this program if: 1) the child's mother is a recipient of Medicaid during a pregnancy; 2) the child's mother uses medical transportation program services to travel to and from a covered health care service related to the pregnancy, including postpartum care; and 3) regardless of whether the child is a recipient of Medicaid. |
no data | no data | Last Action: 04-17-17 H Committee action pending House Human Services |
HB 3583 | John Kuempel | Relating to operators of motor vehicles who use temporary disabled parking placards. |
no data | no data | Remarks: Would have required a person using a temporary accessible parking placard to, on request of a peace officer, provide written evidence of the disability of the driver or passenger for whom the placard was issued. |
no data | no data | Last Action: 04-20-17 H Committee action pending House Transportation |
HB 4137 | Dwayne Bohac | Relating to the availability of parking spaces at certain facilities for persons with a disability. |
no data | no data | Remarks: Would have required certain health facilities to have a "sufficient" number of van-accessible parking spaces. Administrative penalties would have been assessed at not more than $1,000 a day. |
no data | no data | Last Action: 03-31-17 H Introduced and referred to committee on House Public Health |
SB 1685 | Eddie Lucio | Relating to specialty license plates or stickers for motor vehicles of persons with intellectual disabilities. |
no data | no data | Remarks: Would have allowed a person with an intellectual disability to pay to put a sticker on their car's license plate identifying the driver as a person with an intellectual disability. Would have also required officer training about how to interact with drivers with an intellectual disability. |
no data | no data | Last Action: 03-22-17 S Introduced and referred to committee on Senate Transportation |
SB 2157 | Judith Zaffirini | Relating to parking privileges for people with disabilities. |
no data | no data | Remarks: Would have allowed a judge to waive a parking fine if a person agrees to take an accessible parking course. Would have allowed the issuance of only one parking placard, with exceptions made for children or fully-dependent adults, to a person who has a temporary disability or a person with a permanent disability who has a specialty license. People who would have not qualified for a second placard would have had the ability to request an additional placard at a higher cost. Would have required notification about how to properly use the disabled parking placard. |
no data | no data | Last Action: 03-29-17 S Introduced and referred to committee on Senate Transportation |
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