Enrolled Bill Summary

            Senate Bill 1800 amends the Government Code to require a state agency to grant sufficient emergency leave to an employee who is away on military duty to make up the difference between the pay the employee earns from the state and the pay he or she earns from the military, if the military pay is smaller. The bill allows a reservist or National Guard member who is called to active duty in the national armed services to use accrued leave of specified types to draw whatever threshold amount of state salary is necessary to maintain benefits while on military duty, including benefits for dependents, and whatever amount is necessary to continue to earn service credit with the Employees Retirement System of Texas. Otherwise, exclusive of those threshold salary amounts and the make-up pay, the mobilized individual cannot draw both state and military pay. The bill requires the agency to review with an employee, before he or she leaves for military duty, issues relating to the maintenance of his or her state health insurance. The agency must provide the employee a statement on accrued compensatory time and must accommodate any request to use the balance of such time before it expires. Other code amendments extend to a state employee in the State Guard, when called to state active duty by the governor, the same entitlement to paid emergency leave as a state employee in the National Guard when called to state active duty.