The Texas House Committee on Pensions, Investments & Financial Services will gavel in at 10 a.m. Aug. 18 to hear invited testimony only on four interim charges: the rollout of two laws passed last session and reviews of the actuarial soundness of the state’s two largest pension systems.
No public testimony will be taken at the hearing, but Texas residents can submit written comments on all four topics online until adjournment through the House comment portal, according to the hearing notice.
Chaired by Rep. Stan Lambert, R–Abilene, the nine-member committee — five Republicans and four Democrats, with Rep. Mihaela Plesa, D–Plano, as vice chair — meets in Room E2.012 of the Capitol Extension. The panel oversees the retirement systems that cover Texas teachers and state employees, and Tuesday’s soundness reviews come as both funds carry multibillion-dollar unfunded liabilities that lawmakers will confront when they write the next budget in 2027.
The first charge monitors implementation of House Bill 201, which expanded the Tyler-based Financial Crimes Intelligence Center beyond payment card fraud to cover motor fuel theft and fuel-manipulation devices. Lawmakers roughly quadrupled the center’s funding last session, allowing its team to grow from 15 people to 41, KETK reported.
Members will also review House Bill 3526, which requires the Bond Review Board to build a publicly searchable database of every bond proposed or issued by a local government — including principal, estimated interest and total repayment cost — by Sept. 1, 2026, and imposes new pre-election disclosure reports on local entities, according to a Texas Public Policy Foundation analysis. With the database deadline two weeks after the hearing, members are likely to press the board on its readiness.
The Teacher Retirement System charge directs a review of contribution levels, plan assumptions and projected liabilities. TRS’s 2025 actuarial valuation put the fund’s unfunded liability at $64.9 billion, up from $60.6 billion a year earlier, and stretched the projected payoff date to 2060 — largely reflecting the salary increases in last session’s House Bill 2 school finance package, which raised educator pay without a matching contribution increase. The charge also asks members to evaluate basing employer contributions on total payroll and the cost of benefit enhancements.
A parallel charge covers the Employees Retirement System, including past cost-of-living adjustments and the impact of one-time and long-term benefit increases. Under Senate Bill 321, passed in 2021, new state hires moved into a cash-balance plan and the state committed to extra annual payments designed to erase ERS’s unfunded liability by 2054.
Because this is an interim hearing, the committee will take no votes on legislation. Its findings will inform the interim report and any pension and financial services bills filed in the 90th Legislature, which convenes in January 2027.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 10:00 AM CT, Tuesday, August 18, 2026
- Where
- Room E2.012, Capitol Extension, Austin
- Chair
- Rep. Stan Lambert, R–Abilene (HD-71)
- Vice Chair
- Rep. Mihaela Plesa, D–Plano (HD-70)
- Format
- Invited testimony only — no in-person public testimony; online comments accepted until adjournment; interim charges only — no vote on legislation
- Live video
- house.texas.gov/video-audio
- Submit comments online
- comments.house.texas.gov/home?c=c395 (until adjournment)
- Full agenda
- Official hearing notice (capitol.texas.gov)
Committee members
- Rep. Stan Lambert, R–Abilene (HD-71) — Chair
- Rep. Mihaela Plesa, D–Plano (HD-70) — Vice Chair
- Rep. John Bryant, D–Dallas (HD-114)
- Rep. Ben Bumgarner, R–Flower Mound (HD-63)
- Rep. Linda Garcia, D–Mesquite (HD-107)
- Rep. Richard Hayes, R–Hickory Creek (HD-57)
- Rep. Janis Holt, R–Silsbee (HD-18)
- Rep. Alan Schoolcraft, R–McQueeney (HD-44)
- Rep. Hubert Vo, D–Houston (HD-149)