The Texas Workforce Commission meets Tuesday to take up the legislative review that will decide whether the agency exists past next September. Written comment to the reviewers closes at the end of the business day Monday — the day before the meeting.
Under state law the commission is abolished on September 1, 2027 unless lawmakers vote to keep it. The Sunset Advisory Commission, the legislative body that puts every state agency through that test, published its staff findings on June 18. The verdict was blunt: “Transformative changes at TWC have stalled.” Staff faulted the agency’s technology projects as delayed, scaled back, or switched on before they worked; criticized its rollout of new child care case management; and said its oversight of child care fraud investigations ran on 28 different standards.
The recommendation is not to shut the agency down. Staff would continue it for another twelve years but move one piece out — regulation of the state’s 766 licensed career schools and colleges would go to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Staff also want the governor, not the commissioners, to name who presides. The Sunset commission heard that report and public testimony on August 12 and has not voted on any of it.
Tuesday’s agenda pairs the review with money. The commissioners are set to approve the agency’s operating budget for the year starting September 1 and its funding request to the Legislature for the two years after that — a request the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker ordered every agency to file three percent below its current base. The commission spent about $2.7 billion in fiscal 2025, 87 percent of it federal money, employed roughly 4,700 people across the state and reported serving nearly 4.5 million Texans.
Also up: a rule setting when a missed unemployment appeal hearing can be excused, a report on the nuclear energy workforce program the Legislature created last year, certifications for the workshops that employ people with disabilities to sell goods to state agencies, nominees to local workforce boards, and the routine unemployment and wage-claim dockets. Sunset’s own recommendations reach lawmakers in February.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 10 a.m. CT Tuesday, August 18, 2026. The operative notice was filed August 10 and supersedes an earlier filing the same day.
- Where
- Texas Workforce Commission main building, 101 E. 15th St., Room 244, Austin.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas Workforce Commission — three members appointed by the governor to six-year terms, one representing employers, one labor and one the public. Joe Esparza, the employer member, is chairman.
- Format
- In person with a Zoom link in the notice. Anyone wanting to speak must contact staff by 5 p.m. Monday, August 17 for a registration form. A closed session on personnel, litigation and cybersecurity is noticed.
- Live video
- Zoom access link posted in the notice · materials on the agency’s 2026 commission meeting page.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · agency meeting page
Commission members
- Joe Esparza, Oatmeal — chairman; represents employers; former deputy secretary of state.
- Alberto Treviño III, Harlingen — represents labor; retired U.S. Border Patrol agent.
- Brent Connett, Austin — represents the public; former appointments aide to the governor.
The roster follows the agency’s own commissioners page and the governor’s appointment releases. Esparza was named chairman on September 26, 2025, the same day Connett was appointed; note that the chairmanship here sits with the employer member, not the public member, which is unusual among Texas boards. A separate agency page still names a former chairman and should not be relied on. Term-expiration dates are not printed here: the governor’s release for Treviño lists an unexpired term ending February 1, 2023, and no primary source confirming his current term was located. Steve Pier has been executive director since February 2, 2026, succeeding Ed Serna. Staff contact for this meeting: Erin Guzman, Office of General Counsel, (512) 936-3671.