Vote Recommendation | Economic Freedom | Property Rights | Personal Responsibility | Limited Government | Individual Liberty |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Yes | Neutral | Neutral | Positive | Positive | Neutral |
Relating to training for
state employees, including procurement and contract management training;
authorizing fees.
No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
SB 1638 would revise and add sections to Chapter 656 (Job
Notices and Training) of the Government Code. These sections would pertain to required
training of contract negotiation and management by state agency employees.
Firstly, this legislation would require a state agency to
submit a report regarding any training expenses that exceed $5,000.
Secondly, SB 1638 would transfer and amend certain sections
in the Government Code and bring it under Chapter 656. Below would be the new
section numbers of the transferred bills:
As mentioned before, these transferred sections would also
be amended. Most of these changes would entail replacing “commission” with “comptroller”
since these sections are now under a new chapter.
Although this legislation mainly reorganizes certain
sections in the Government Code, it maintains and strengthens existing statutes
that are essential to the proper role of government. Government employees
should be required to undergo training in negotiating and managing contracts,
because it teaches them to be more cognizant of the money the taxpayers entrust them with. To the extent that this training helps them to negotiate good contracts on terms beneficial to the state, this legislation would be a win for the taxpayers.
We support SB 1638 because it strengthens the requirements of
training state employees for contract management. Moreover, this legislation
makes these requirements more transparent by bringing these provisions under
the purview of one chapter.