Update on HRA Amendment and SB 1811
Legislature Does NOT Add HRA to TRS-Care
Thousands of TRTA members emailed and called their legislators asking them to vote “NO!” on an amendment adding Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRA) to the TRS-Care program. With much gratitude to the TRTA membership and the Texas Legisalture, this amendment was NOT added to the final bill.
TRTA also asked members to email and call House members about the Gooden/Villarreal Amendment making any reduction to TRS or TRS-Care a temporary change. House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts amended SB 1811 to ensure changes to TRS and TRS-Care are temporary reductions. Representative Villarreal spoke-up for TRTA members and for all TRS retirees by asking Representative Pitts to speak more about this change and clarify the position being taken through the amendment. Representative Pitts did assure Representative Villarreal and the Texas House that changes to TRS are considered temporary to the upcoming biennium, and he also spoke about a potential agreement in the budget conference committee that will reduce TRS and TRS-Care contributions for only one year in the coming biennium (this sounds like the Senate proposal that has become known as the “Duncan Plan”). TRTA will learn more about this in the coming days. As a final note, your communication on this vital amendment helped propel it to top of the list for consideration. Out of about 90 considered amendments and hours and hours of debate, the amendment on TRS funding was number 2 on the list. Thank you for your help to make the legislature aware of these vital issues.
TRTA will provide additional updates this weekend as issues advance through the legislative process.