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

HB3698

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Official caption: Relating to participation in reemployment services as a condition of eligibility for unemployment benefits.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists House author(s): Vo. 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.

HB3698 lets the Texas Workforce Commission require participation in reemployment services as a condition of unemployment benefits even when its profiling system does not identify the claimant as likely to exhaust benefits.
The five goals are improving employment outcomes to reduce time receiving unemployment compensation, strengthening program integrity, aligning with the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act's vision, making the reemployment-services and eligibility-assessment program an entry point to other workforce programs, and demonstrating the effectiveness of reemployment services.
The existing profiling route also remains: a person identified as likely to exhaust regular benefits and need services must participate unless the commission determines the person already completed such a service or has reasonable cause not to participate.
The act took effect September 1, 2025, and applies only to claims filed with the commission on or after that date.

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What does it do?

HB3698 lets the Texas Workforce Commission require participation in reemployment services as a condition of unemployment benefits even when its profiling system does not identify the claimant as likely to exhaust benefits. Reemployment services can include job-search assistance. The commission must determine that participation advances the law’s stated goals, and there is an exception for reasonable cause for nonparticipation as determined by the commission. Final law.

The five goals are improving employment outcomes to reduce time receiving unemployment compensation, strengthening program integrity, aligning with the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act’s vision, making the reemployment-services and eligibility-assessment program an entry point to other workforce programs, and demonstrating the effectiveness of reemployment services. The change is not an automatic requirement that every claimant attend an identical program; it supplies an additional basis for the commission’s participation determination.

The existing profiling route also remains: a person identified as likely to exhaust regular benefits and need services must participate unless the commission determines the person already completed such a service or has reasonable cause not to participate. The new alternative expressly retains reasonable cause, but does not repeat that route’s separate completed-service exception. Other eligibility conditions—including being able and available to work and actively seeking work—are not removed.

The act took effect September 1, 2025, and applies only to claims filed with the commission on or after that date. Earlier-filed claims remain governed by the former law. It changes a participation condition, not the weekly benefit amount or maximum benefit duration.

What changed along the way?

The introduced bill proposed an additional participation route by referring to the federal goals in Social Security Act Section 306(b) and requiring the services to meet Section 306(c)’s evidence-based intervention standards.

The House substitute instead listed the five goals in Texas law and expressly said the new route applies regardless of the profiling assessment’s result. It did not retain the introduced bill’s separate Section 306(c) condition. That does not repeal the federal evidence-based requirements governing federal program grant funds; those remain in 42 U.S.C. Section 506.

The engrossed text, Senate report and enrolled operative provisions match the House substitute. The amendment index reports no floor amendments; there was no conference rewrite. The governor signed it May 29, 2025. Official history.

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?

More claimants may receive job-search help or connections to workforce services without first being categorized as likely to use all their regular benefits. The intended gains are faster or better employment outcomes and improved program integrity; the act does not establish that those outcomes have already occurred.

For selected claimants, participation becomes a condition of benefit eligibility, so missing required services without commission-recognized reasonable cause can affect benefits. Attending services may require time and coordination. The reasonable-cause protection remains important; this briefing cannot determine how it applies to an individual claimant.

The May 2 fiscal note anticipates no significant state or local fiscal impact and assumes implementation costs can be absorbed within existing resources. It does not quantify savings in benefit payments or promise a job to each participant.

Review boundary: This is the statutory change, not a personal eligibility decision or a description of a particular appointment notice. Federal grant requirements are distinguished from the narrower Texas eligibility wording removed during substitution.

Official sources

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