Last month, Texas Representative Celia Israel (D-Austin) discussed transportation spending and policy from the recently concluded 85th Texas Legislature with the Chamber's Transportation Committee. In particular, she focused on legislation pertaining to transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft.

The Texas House Transportation Committee, a committee in which Representative Israel sat on, weighed in on numerous hearings regarding HB 100. The bill, introduced by Texas Representative Paddie (R-Marshall), allowed the State of Texas to regulate transportation network companies (TNC) like Uber, Ride Austin, and Lyft by overriding local government rules. Although the bill passed on the second reading with a vote of 110-37, Representative Israel—along with her Austin colleagues Representative Gina Hinojosa, Dawnna Dukes, Donna Howard, and Eddie Rodriguez—opposed the bill.

“I would have liked for the bill to say to the cities you will get some revenue. Let’s work out a situation to compensate for the impact of the bill,” said Representative Israel.

The lack of data sharing in the bill was also a concern for Representative Israel. “I was really hoping that we would have a bill that the TNC companies would collect all of their data,” said Representative Israel. “And then distribute it to the cities that are impacted. We don’t know if that was an Uber ride, a Lyft ride, or a RideAustin ride. All we know is that it was a TNC ride. The intersection of technology and transportation is not at some point in the future. It’s here. Right now we are in the midst of it.”

The next transportation committee meeting will be held on Thursday, August 24 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the boardroom of the Austin Chamber of Commerce. To join the committee or sign up to attend the meeting, contact Drew Scheberle, SVP of Governmental Relations, at 512-322-5628.