A version of the following public comment was submitted to members of the Texas House Committee on Transportation on August 17, 2026.
Texas Senate Bill 1939 ensures that the Ship Channel Improvement Revolving Fund (SCIRF) retains its interest and earnings. This is largely an accounting correction. Whether it has worked is still to be determined. The bill’s original intent was to shift the SCIRF to Texas’ highway fund and out of the general fund, but that language was changed. Texas Government Code Chapter 56 Section 002(b)(5) credits interest accrued by the SCIRF to the SCIRF, but was overrode by Chapter 403 Section 0956’s clause of “notwithstanding any other law,” so the SCIRF did not retain what Chapter 56 assigned it. This meant that interest accrued by the SCIRF was instead deposited into the general fund.
SB 1939, following revisions, strictly resolved that legislative override. The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts noted the revision and the Manual of Accounts entry for GR Account 5167, revised June 24, 2025, which lists depository interest as retained in the account and cites SB 1939.
Judging whether implementation was successful is an important question, but it’s still too early to ask it. The bill took effect in 2025 and the exemption for the fund is based on a balance the fund does not currently hold. Due to SCIRF’s nature as a revolving fund, the full $400 million that was appropriated to the SCIRF has already been loaned out to two projects near Beaumont and Brownsville. Interest accrues on money that is currently sitting on the fund, so until those two projects begin paying back their loans there is not a significant amount of money for interest to accrue on. It will matter whether this change was successfully implemented when repayments are returned to SCIRF and accrue interest.