In a breathtaking unanimous vote by both the Texas House and Senate, a bill to increase punishment for rigging government contract bids is being readied to become law.
The bill was inspired in part by a Harris County scandal and designed to curtail the corrupt practice of officials designating friends, affiliations, partners or political syndicates bidding for government contracts, according to one sponsor.
The Senate sponsor of the House bill, Houston-area state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, noted that the bill is extraordinary for more than one reason, including the fact that it passed both chambers of the Texas Legislature unanimously with a 31–0 vote in the Senate and 145–0 in the House.
“This bill increases misdemeanor penalties to felonies to crack down on statewide bid-rigging contract fraud.” said the senator, who authored the identical Senate companion SB 3041.
The bills were written as a response to "recent bid-rigging scandals in part by high-profile cases, which included a $40 million bid-rigging scandal in Harris County where charges were later dropped by District Attorney Sean Teare," he said.
The bill attempts to dis-incentivize rigging bids by increasing penalties for doing so.
Former punishment under misdemeanor penalties are raised to felonies under terms of the bill -- third degree felonies are prescribed for rigging bids under $150,000, as penalties are raised up to first degree felonies for illegal bids of more than $300,000.