Bill would create cross-agency employment resource initiative to improve coordination
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Summary
Senate Bill 2607 would direct HHSC, TDCJ, and TWC to collaborate with workforce boards and stakeholders to align services, reduce redundancies, and improve data sharing for people using multiple public programs; the bill was presented with invited local testimony and left pending.
Senate Bill 2607, introduced by Senator Blanco, would create a formal cross-agency employment resource initiative directing the Health and Human Services Commission, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, and the Texas Workforce Commission to coordinate with local workforce development boards to better align services for individuals who interact with multiple programs.
Blanco said overlapping procedures and limited data sharing among agencies make it harder to serve clients efficiently; the initiative is intended to reduce redundancies and improve outcomes for populations such as justice-involved jobseekers and jobseekers with disabilities. “This initiative will strengthen interagency coordination. It's gonna reduce service redundancies and improve data sharing to better support individuals navigating multiple systems,” Blanco told the committee.
Leila Melendez of Workforce Solutions Borderplex described barriers reentering individuals often face—missing IDs, lack of resumes, and limited employment planning—and said earlier identification and sharing of client information with workforce boards could reduce the need for secondary outreach. Summer Stringer of HHSC and Mary York of TWC appeared as resource witnesses. The committee closed public testimony and left the bill pending subject to the call of the chair.