2025 · Regular session · House bill
HB4464
HB4464 changes workers' compensation coverage for members of Texas Task Force 1, intrastate fire mutual-aid teams and regional incident-management teams.
Official caption: Relating to the provision of workers' compensation insurance coverage for certain Texas Task Force 1 members and intrastate fire mutual aid system team and regional incident management team members, including the removal of coverage for nongovernment members.
Official report lists House author(s): González, Mary, Patterson. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
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.
- HB4464 changes workers' compensation coverage for members of Texas Task Force 1, intrastate fire mutual-aid teams and regional incident-management teams.
- The new rule covers a member who qualifies as an employee under one of five public-sector workers' compensation chapters and is activated by the Texas Division of Emergency Management, or is injured in training sponsored or sanctioned by that division or Texas Task Force 1.
- The act repeals the blanket provisions that had placed participating nongovernment and local-government members in the state-employee coverage system.
- The law also removes the special average-weekly-wage formulas for these teams and the provisions assigning employer duties to the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service or Forest Service for the former state coverage.
What does it do?
HB4464 changes workers’ compensation coverage for members of Texas Task Force 1, intrastate fire mutual-aid teams and regional incident-management teams. It removes the former special state coverage for nongovernment members and places qualifying government-employee members in specified coverage systems. The governor signed it June 20, 2025; it applies to compensable injuries occurring on or after September 1, 2025. Earlier injuries remain governed by the former law.
The new rule covers a member who qualifies as an employee under one of five public-sector workers’ compensation chapters and is activated by the Texas Division of Emergency Management, or is injured in training sponsored or sanctioned by that division or Texas Task Force 1. The qualifying service counts as part of the employee’s regular work:
- State-agency employees receive coverage under the state-employee system, Chapter 501.
- University of Texas System and Texas Department of Transportation employees receive the specified team-service coverage under Chapter 501 in the same manner as state employees, rather than their ordinary separate systems.
- Texas A&M University System employees remain within their Chapter 502 coverage.
- Local political-subdivision employees receive coverage under Chapter 504.
The act repeals the blanket provisions that had placed participating nongovernment and local-government members in the state-employee coverage system. Team membership alone no longer supplies that former coverage. But it is too broad to say that every volunteer is excluded: the incorporated Chapter 504 employee definition includes people for whom optional coverage is provided, and Section 504.012 allows local governments to cover specified volunteers. Whether a particular volunteer has that coverage must be checked.
The law also removes the special average-weekly-wage formulas for these teams and the provisions assigning employer duties to the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service or Forest Service for the former state coverage. It does not abolish the response teams or cancel all workers’ compensation protection for their members.
What changed along the way?
The introduced bill proposed broader exclusions and repeals without the final replacement coverage framework. The House substitute narrowed the repeals and added treatment of qualifying service as regular employment. The House-passed operative text matched that substitute.
The Senate substitute aligned both local-government definitions with Labor Code 504.001 and specified the different coverage systems, including Chapter 501 coverage for UT System and transportation employees. The Senate amendments packet contains the adopted substitute; its operative provisions match the enrolled law. The history records House concurrence on May 30. The amendment index lists no separate amendments; that does not erase the Senate substitution documented in the text index and packet.
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?
Government-employed responders gain an express rule identifying which system covers qualifying team service. Local governments and their coverage arrangements take responsibility for their qualifying employee members. Nongovernment members who lack another qualifying arrangement lose the former automatic state protection and may face medical or income-loss exposure if injured. Actual eligibility depends on employment, optional coverage, activation or training, and the injury—not simply the team name.
The final listed fiscal note anticipated no significant state or local fiscal implication and assumed any savings would be insignificant. That budget finding does not mean that the coverage change is insignificant for an individual injured responder, and it does not estimate individual lost benefits.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
