HB3146

HB3146 removes specified agency-agreement and reimbursement provisions governing hearings at the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH). SOAH is the state’s independent forum for many disputes involving executive-branch agencies. The act changes the procedural framework; it does not abolish SOAH or generally eliminate people’s hearing rights. Final law; SOAH’s underlying authority.

The repeals cover specific provisions in the Agriculture, Human Resources, Insurance, Labor and Transportation codes. They remove requirements for certain memoranda of understanding—formal agreements between agencies—and, in the agriculture and human-services provisions, specified reimbursement arrangements. That does not mean every hearing becomes free or every interagency payment requirement disappears: other governing law remains, including the workers’ compensation interagency contract provision in Government Code 2003.021(c).

For the Department of Family and Protective Services, the law clarifies that if SOAH conducts a contested-case hearing for the department under the Administrative Procedure Act, the administrative law judge enters the final decision. It removes specified agreement provisions but retains the personnel-grievance exception and the hearing-location protection in the department’s administrative region unless all parties agree otherwise. Department hearing statute.

In workers’ compensation cases, the act removes the reference to Labor Code 402.072 from the list for which a SOAH judge proposes a decision to the commissioner. It retains the other listed categories and the distinction between cases in which the judge decides and cases in which the commissioner makes the final decision. It also updates three section headings.

For driver’s-license suspension hearings under Transportation Code Chapter 524, a timely continuance request now goes expressly to SOAH, without relying on the repealed scheduling agreement. The existing timing remains: the request must be received before the fifth day before the scheduled hearing, and the new hearing date generally cannot be earlier than the fifth day after receipt unless both parties agree. The act does not remove the statutory limit on continuances. Scheduling statute.

The governor signed June 20, 2025. The law took effect September 1, 2025. Official history.