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The Texas House of Representatives has passed out a major package of ethics and campaign finance reform measures this session, which close loopholes and strengthens enforcement of laws.

"Texas is widely regarded by independent experts as having some of the strongest ethics and campaign finance laws in the nation because we have full disclosure and strict enforcement," Speaker Tom Craddick (R - Midland) said. "However, most of these laws were passed back in 1991, and a number of weaknesses and loopholes were discovered that need fixing. I am pleased that the House has passed this reform package, and I hope the Senate will pass it as well."

Significant reforms in the legislative package include prohibiting legislators from using campaign contributions to "rent" living quarters in Austin from their spouses and requiring the full disclosure of the amount of any monetary gifts to state officials. Political contributions will be banned during special sessions, and the law regarding permissible "administrative expenditures" and prohibited expenditures on behalf of a political action committee is clarified.

The reforms tighten various campaign finance reporting laws by closing loopholes to ensure that all political contributions are disclosed to Texans in a complete and timely fashion. The reforms also require Texas state agencies to adopt ethics policies for their employees and require more detailed reporting by Texas lobbyists of their compensation.

Unfortunately, House Democrats utilized a point of order to kill House Bill 2508 by Rep. Phil King, which would have closed a loophole and banned public employees from using public resources, such as state email accounts, to engage in political advertising and advocacy.

"As chairman of the House Elections Committee, I am proud of the work my committee did this session on ethics and campaign finance," Rep. Leo Berman (R - Tyler) said. "The committee pinpointed the various gaps and flaws in our current system, and the House passed out good bills to fix them."

The national Center for Public Integrity ranks Texas as having the 3rd-best disclosure system in the nation for legislators' personal finances, and the 12th-best disclosure system in the nation for lobbyist expenditures. Having passed the House, the bills now move to the Senate for consideration.

HB 3066 by Truitt -- Payment Made to Purchase Real Property           

The legislation will close a loophole in Texas ethics laws, by clarifying that a legislator may not use campaign contributions to "rent" living quarters in Austin that are owned by a relative.  This is in response to criticism that legislators are converting campaign contributions to personal use.

The legislation will close a loophole in Texas ethics laws, by clarifying that a public official must disclose the exact amount of a monetary gift.

The legislation extends the current prohibition against political contributions being made during a regular legislation session, to include special sessions as well.

The legislation will clarify Texas campaign finance laws, for the first time detailing which "administrative expenses" of a PAC may be paid for by corporations and which may not.

The legislation will provide for fuller disclosure of lobbyist compensation.  Prior law contains reporting ranges that top out at a high range of "$200,000 or higher", meaning that lobbyist contracts of a higher value are not fully detailed.  The legislation provides for new reporting ranges up to $500,000.

The legislation strengthens government ethics by requiring each state agency to adopt a written ethics policy and to distribute copies of the policy to each employee.

The legislation will update Texas campaign finance laws to reflect the new forms of Texas corporate entities, to ensure that the Texas prohibition against campaign contributions from corporations remains complete.

The legislation closes an inadvertent loophole in Texas campaign finance laws, requires that the campaign finance reports due in the days leading up to an election (also known as "special reports" or "telegram reports") must actually be received by (not just mailed to) the Texas Ethics Commission by the filing deadline, to ensure that candidates disclose these later contributions in time for the public to know of them.

The legislation requires that if a campaign is "grandfathered" from the requirement that its reports electronically, it must file its paper reports by overnight mail to ensure that they are received by the Texas Ethics Commission and made available to the public more promptly.

The legislation strengthens the Texas agency employee revolving door statute, which restricts the ability of former high-ranking agency officials to lobby their former agency on specific issues they worked on while managing the agency.  The legislation updates the statute to reflect the new employee salary classifications used in the modern appropriations process.