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Senate Bill 149 |
Senate Author: Nelson et al. |
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Effective: 6-14-13 |
House Sponsor: Keffer et al. |
Senate Bill 149 amends provisions of the Health and Safety Code relating to the structure, operation, and funding of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). The bill replaces the institute's executive director with a chief executive officer (CEO) hired by the CPRIT oversight committee and requires the CEO to hire chief scientific, chief operating, chief product development, and chief prevention officers who each report directly to the CEO. The bill provides for the immediate expiration of serving CPRIT oversight committee member terms and provides for the appointment of new members to the CPRIT oversight committee. The bill revises provisions relating to the oversight committee, including provisions regarding the committee's composition, member qualifications and appointment requirements, the election and duties of committee officers, and disclosure requirements for political contributions by committee members. The bill requires the oversight committee to annually set priorities for each grant program receiving money and to consider those priorities in awarding grants.
Senate Bill 149 modifies CPRIT's powers and duties regarding certain compliance measures, requires CPRIT to employ a chief compliance officer who reports to the oversight committee, and establishes the chief compliance officer's duties. The bill requires the oversight committee to establish research and prevention programs committees and revises qualifications for certain committee members. The bill requires the oversight committee to adopt a written policy on in-state or out-of-state residency requirements for members of the committees, rules regarding required qualifications and training of certain committee members, and policies regarding changes in the amount of honorarium paid to a committee member. The bill revises the disclosure and recusal requirements for a member of a research and prevention programs committee and prohibits a member from serving on the board of directors or other governing board of an entity receiving a grant from CPRIT or of a foundation or similar organization affiliated with the entity. The bill establishes a program integration committee, sets out the committee's composition, and specifies that the CEO serves as the presiding officer of the committee.
Senate Bill 149 requires CPRIT to establish a compliance program operating under the direction of the chief compliance officer, authorizes CPRIT to establish procedures to allow private access to the compliance program office and to preserve the confidentiality of communications and the anonymity of a person making a compliance report or participating in a compliance investigation, specifies the types of information that are confidential and not subject to disclosure under state public information law unless the individual to whom the information relates consents, and provides for the disclosure of confidential information to specified parties under certain circumstances. The bill authorizes the oversight committee to conduct a closed meeting under the state's open meeting law to discuss an ongoing compliance investigation into issues related to fraud, waste, or abuse of state resources.
Senate Bill 149 revises annual reporting requirements regarding CPRIT's activities, grants awarded and in progress, research accomplishments, and future program directions and sets out recordkeeping and audit requirements relating to grant applications and grant awards. The bill includes provisions relating to limiting supplementation of CPRIT employee salaries, but expressly prohibits CPRIT from supplementing the salary of the CEO, which can be paid only from legislative appropriations. The bill prohibits a CPRIT employee from having an office in a facility owned by an entity receiving or applying to receive money from CPRIT.
Senate Bill 149 expands the applicability of conflict-of-interest rules adopted by the oversight committee to include the program integration committee, the research and prevention programs committees, and institute employees. The bill sets out provisions regarding prohibited professional and financial conflicts of interest for institute employees, oversight committee members, program integration members, or research and prevention programs committee members, or a person who is related to the employee or member within the second degree of affinity or consanguinity, and regarding the circumstances under which the conflict-of-interest requirements may be waived and the investigation and final determination of an unreported conflict of interest.
Senate Bill 149 requires the oversight committee to adopt a code of conduct applicable to each oversight committee member, program integration committee member, and CPRIT employee and establishes the minimum prohibited conduct required to be included in the code of conduct. The bill requires each member of the oversight committee to file a verified personal financial statement with the chief compliance officer. The bill removes from the contents of the cancer prevention and research fund patent, royalty, and license fees and other income received under a CPRIT contract, prohibits appropriations of money to the fund from the legislature from including the proceeds from the issuance of certain bonds, and includes the payment of debt service on such bonds among the authorized uses of the fund. The bill establishes the cancer prevention and research interest and sinking fund as a dedicated account in the general revenue fund and sets out the contents and authorized uses of the fund.
Senate Bill 149 revises the procedures for awarding grants to an applicant, including the information and documentation required to be submitted with a research and prevention programs committee recommendation and the types of proposals required to be given priority by the program integration committee. The bill requires CPRIT's chief compliance officer to compare each grant application submitted to CPRIT to a certain list of donors before the application is submitted to a research and prevention programs committee for review and again before any grant is awarded to the applicant. The bill requires the CEO to submit a written affidavit for each grant application recommendation submitted to the oversight committee by the program integration committee that contains all relevant information on the peer review process for the grant application, the application's peer review score assigned by the research and prevention programs committee, and, if applicable, the intellectual property and other due diligence reviews of the application. The bill prohibits a member of the program integration committee from discussing a grant application recommendation with a member of the oversight committee unless the CEO and the program integration committee have fulfilled the applicable requirements and prohibits CPRIT from awarding a grant to an applicant who has made a gift or grant to CPRIT or a nonprofit organization established to provide support to CPRIT.
Previous law required the oversight committee to follow the funding recommendations of the executive director unless two-thirds of the members of the committee vote to disregard a recommendation. Senate Bill 149 requires two-thirds of the oversight committee present and voting to vote to approve each funding recommendation of the program integration committee and requires a statement explaining the reasons a funding recommendation was not followed to be included in the meeting minutes if the committee does not approve a recommendation. The bill revises the information required to be specified in the written contract between the oversight committee and a grant recipient regarding procedures for when a grant recipient does not use grant money for the intended purpose or fails to meet the terms and conditions of the contract and establishes contract requirements regarding dedicated matching funds from the grant recipient. The bill requires the oversight committee to adopt rules specifying how a grant recipient fulfills the recipient's obligations regarding the grant award and requires CPRIT to adopt a policy on advance payments to grant recipients. The bill requires CPRIT to establish and implement reporting requirements to ensure that grant recipients comply with the terms and conditions of the grant contract and to implement a system to track and monitor the status of those reports. The bill requires the chief compliance officer to monitor compliance with the reporting requirements and tracking system and sets out notification requirements regarding untimely reports and noncompliance by a grant recipient.
Senate Bill 149 specifies that the records of a nonprofit organization established to provide support to CPRIT are public information and requires CPRIT to post on its Internet website records that pertain specifically to any gift, grant, or other consideration provided to CPRIT, a CPRIT employee, or a member of a CPRIT committee and requires the posted information to include the donor's name and the amount and date of the donation.