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

HB5196

HB5196 sets rules for telework by covered Texas state employees, effective September 1, 2025.

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Official caption: Relating to telework for state employees.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists House author(s): Capriglione, Patterson, DeAyala, Leach, Rodríguez Ramos. 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.

HB5196 sets rules for telework by covered Texas state employees, effective September 1, 2025.
The agreement must be written, explain why telework is authorized, state revocation terms, and be renewed at least annually.
An agency allowing telework must adopt and publicly post a plan covering employee suitability, performance standards, productivity monitoring, physical and information security, equal rules and discipline, and a ban on conducting in-person business at the employee's home.
Sources: final law; official history.

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What does it do?

HB5196 sets rules for telework by covered Texas state employees, effective September 1, 2025. An agency head may authorize regular work away from the employee’s regular or assigned temporary workplace to address an office-space shortage or provide reasonable flexibility that helps the agency achieve its mission. This is permission, not an employee entitlement.

The agreement must be written, explain why telework is authorized, state revocation terms, and be renewed at least annually. The agency may revoke it at any time without notice, may not offer telework as a condition of employment, and may require attendance at another work location for a meeting or event needing in-person interaction.

An agency allowing telework must adopt and publicly post a plan covering employee suitability, performance standards, productivity monitoring, physical and information security, equal rules and discipline, and a ban on conducting in-person business at the employee’s home. That last rule is not a blanket ban on working from home.

Sources: final law; official history.

What changed along the way?

Before this bill, Government Code 658.010 already allowed agency heads to give prior written authorization to work elsewhere. HB5196 replaces that general exception in subsection (a) with authorization under the new telework-agreement section; it does not create remote work from nothing. The separate rule requiring prior written approval to treat a personal residence as the regular or assigned temporary workplace remains in subsection (b).

The introduced bill already proposed written reasons, revocation terms, annual renewal and no guaranteed telework at hiring. The House committee substitute clarified the definition around the employee’s assigned workplace, expressly changed 658.010(a), added the agency’s right to require in-person attendance, and added the detailed publicly posted telework plan. Its prohibition says telework may not be offered as a condition of employment, not merely a condition of hiring.

The House committee, engrossed, Senate committee and final operative provisions match. No floor amendments are indexed. The governor signed the bill June 20; the effective date stayed September 1.

Sources: five versions; amendment index; introduced proposal; committee substitute.

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?

Agencies gain a common framework for documenting and supervising telework; employees gain clearer written terms but retain no promise of permanent remote work. Publicly posted plans make agency policies easier to inspect. Monitoring, security controls and renewal create administrative work. The statute does not prescribe a universal number of remote days or reduce existing work-hour duties.

The existing chapter definition covers executive-branch agencies, specified courts and other judicial-branch agencies, including public higher-education institutions other than public junior colleges. It is not a telework rule for all private employers or local governments.

The May 21, 2025 fiscal note anticipates no significant state or local fiscal implication and assumes agencies can absorb costs using existing resources. The April 15 introduced and April 24 substitute notes reach the same conclusion. That is an estimate, not proof of actual office savings or zero monitoring costs.

Review boundary: the complete final act, history, all five versions, amendment index and three fiscal notes were read. Historical Government Code 658.001, 658.002 and 658.010 were checked. This explanation does not certify an individual agency’s posted plan, an employee’s agreement, or the resolution of separate accommodation rights under other laws.

Source: latest fiscal note.

Official sources

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