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Senate Bill 940 |
Senate Author: Wentworth |
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Effective: 9-1-09 |
House Sponsor: Chisum |
Senate Bill 940 amends the Occupations Code to establish procedures for complaints brought before the Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists and investigations of such complaints by the board. The bill authorizes a person who expresses the intent to become a licensed geoscientist to register with the board as a geoscientist in training and requires the board by rule to establish criteria for such registration. The bill requires the board to issue advisory opinions and establishes guidelines for responding to a request for an opinion, numbering and classifying each opinion, and publishing an annual summary of the opinions on the Internet. The bill establishes that the board's authority to issue an advisory opinion does not affect the authority of the attorney general to issue an opinion, and makes it a defense to prosecution or to the imposition of an administrative penalty that a person reasonably relied on a written advisory opinion of the board, under certain conditions.