AUSTIN—The Keep Texas Trucking Coalition (KTTC) today released the following statement regarding the passage on second reading of House Bill 19 by the Texas House of Representatives:

The Texas House has taken an important step to ensure our legal system provides appropriate remedies for injured Texans without allowing rampant lawsuit abuse to wreak havoc on small businesses.

Protecting Texas jobs is not a partisan issue. We are thankful for Speaker Dade Phelan’s leadership and Chairman Jeff Leach’s (R-Plano) hard and effective work in shepherding this critically important bill through this exhaustive process. We applaud Rep. Eddie Lucio III (D-Brownsville) and Rep. Ina Minjarez (D-San Antonio) for their roles in bringing bipartisanship to this bill, which is important for all Texans who rely on commercial vehicles for jobs, goods and services.

Passage in the House on second reading is an important step in the legislative process. While we are concerned about the broadness of some of the provisions in HB 19, we look forward to working with the Texas Senate to ensure the bill is tightly crafted and focused. The goal of HB 19 remains now as it has always been—to ensure accident victims can be compensated fairly in our courts, and that small businesses can continue to safely operate commercial vehicles without being put out of business by frivolous and abusive litigation.

With more than 550 members spanning businesses and associations of all sizes across nearly every sector of the Texas economy, the Keep Texas Trucking Coalition is working to ensure the Texas economy, small businesses and employers are not harmed by abusive commercial vehicle litigation. For more information, please visit www.keeptexastrucking.com.

###