2025 Texas sessionsRegular and both called sessions have ended. This index covers House and Senate bills, not resolutions. Statuses come from official reports.

2025 · Regular session · House bill

HB3260

HB3260 gives the Texas Workforce Commission a more direct role in recognizing programs for the state's industry-recognized apprenticeship grants, allows partial milestone reimbursements, and requires public results reporting.

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Official caption: Relating to the Texas Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Programs Grant Program.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists House author(s): Bell, Keith, Button, Longoria, Wilson, VanDeaver. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.

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Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.

Bill highlights

Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.

HB3260 gives the Texas Workforce Commission a more direct role in recognizing programs for the state's industry-recognized apprenticeship grants, allows partial milestone reimbursements, and requires public results reporting.
For this grant program, the commission replaces the federal Office of Apprenticeship as the body recognizing an apprenticeable occupation, and replaces the federally qualified third-party-certifier route with commission certification under state rules.
The commission's certification criteria must be generally consistent with the federal apprenticeship standards referenced in the act.
The commission may adopt rules allowing partial reimbursement as training and employment milestones are met, consistent with grant terms.
The commission must establish completion and retention measures, reporting timelines for recipients, and a schedule for annually publishing aggregated results online.

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What does it do?

HB3260 gives the Texas Workforce Commission a more direct role in recognizing programs for the state’s industry-recognized apprenticeship grants, allows partial milestone reimbursements, and requires public results reporting. The governor signed June 20, 2025; the act took effect September 1, 2025. It applies only to grants awarded on or after that date; earlier grants remain under former law. Final law; history.

For this grant program, the commission replaces the federal Office of Apprenticeship as the body recognizing an apprenticeable occupation, and replaces the federally qualified third-party-certifier route with commission certification under state rules. Recognized occupations must involve structured, supervised practical training, be commonly recognized in an industry, require substantial manual, mechanical or technical work experience, and include related instruction.

The commission’s certification criteria must be generally consistent with the federal apprenticeship standards referenced in the act. This does not mean state grant recognition automatically creates federal registration: 29 CFR Part 29 separately governs federal registration and standards, including supervised learning, related instruction, wages, evaluation and safety.

The commission may adopt rules allowing partial reimbursement as training and employment milestones are met, consistent with grant terms. This adds a payment option; it does not repeal the underlying program’s eligibility requirements or grant cap. Existing law limits reimbursement per participant to the lesser of eligible training costs, excluding wages and benefits, or $10,000, and retains program-completion and 12-month suitable-employment conditions. Grant terms and rules govern the new partial payments; the bill does not specify installment amounts. Grant conditions.

The commission must establish completion and retention measures, reporting timelines for recipients, and a schedule for annually publishing aggregated results online. It must adopt required rules as soon as practicable, without a fixed calendar deadline in the act.

What changed along the way?

The filed bill and House committee text already contained state recognition/certification and partial milestone reimbursement. Keith Bell’s adopted House amendment added the performance measures, recipient reporting timelines and annual public release of aggregated data. Those additions survived in the House-passed, Senate-reported and final texts.

That is the only indexed floor amendment. Amendment index; version index.

For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.

Official bill versions

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?

Eligible private-sector training providers may benefit from a state recognition route and earlier partial reimbursement when grant milestones are met. Participants may benefit from qualifying paid training, while the public gains reporting on completion and employment retention. Recipients face reporting duties; grant eligibility and funding are not automatic.

The retained program requirements include paid on-the-job training, employment during and after successful completion, employee-benefit eligibility, a credentialed skill outcome and programs lasting no more than 26 weeks. Governmental entities are excluded from the statutory definition of eligible “person.” These are conditions of this particular grant program, not a description of every apprenticeship in Texas. Eligibility.

The May 16 fiscal note anticipates no significant state or local-government fiscal impact, assuming costs can be absorbed with existing resources. The act does not appropriate new grant money or estimate individual wages or employer savings.

Review boundary: All six sections, the sole amendment, retained grant conditions and relevant federal recognition/standards provisions checked. No claim is made that a particular program is approved, that grant money is currently available or that a specific installment schedule has been adopted.

Official sources

Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.