By:  Hochberg                                          H.B. No. 158
       73R1635 JD-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the adoption of certain emergency rules under the
    1-3  Administrative Procedure and Texas Register Act.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 5(d), Administrative Procedure and Texas
    1-6  Register Act (Article 6252-13a, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is
    1-7  amended to read as follows:
    1-8        (d)  If an agency finds that an imminent peril to the public
    1-9  health, safety, or welfare or a requirement of state or federal law
   1-10  requires adoption of a rule on fewer than 30 days' notice and
   1-11  states in writing its reasons for that finding, it may proceed
   1-12  without prior notice or hearing or on any abbreviated notice and
   1-13  hearing that it finds practicable to adopt an emergency rule.  The
   1-14  agency must set forth the requisite finding in the preamble to the
   1-15  rule.  The rule may be effective for a period of not longer than
   1-16  120 days renewable once for a period not exceeding 60 days, but the
   1-17  adoption of an identical rule under Subsections (a) and (c) of this
   1-18  section is not precluded.  An emergency rule adopted under <the
   1-19  provisions of> this subsection, and the agency's written reasons
   1-20  for the adoption, shall be filed in the office of the secretary of
   1-21  state for publication in the Texas Register.  In this subsection,
   1-22  "requirement of state law" means a state statute that specifically
   1-23  refers to this subsection and expressly requires an agency to adopt
   1-24  an emergency rule.
    2-1        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-2  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-3  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-4  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-5  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-6  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-7  passage, and it is so enacted.