By:  Holzheauser                                       H.B. No. 631
       73R3170 GCH-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the number and location of district offices of the
    1-3  Texas Department of Transportation.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Article 6663h, Revised Statutes, is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        Art. 6663h.  DEPARTMENT DISTRICTS.  (a)  For the purposes of
    1-8  performing the department's duties, the commission shall divide the
    1-9  state into 25 <not more than 18> districts.  A district may not
   1-10  have more than one district office.  The department shall locate a
   1-11  district office in each of the following municipalities:  Paris,
   1-12  Fort Worth, Wichita Falls, Amarillo, Lubbock, Odessa, San Angelo,
   1-13  Abilene, Waco, Tyler, Lufkin, Houston, Yoakum, Austin, San Antonio,
   1-14  Corpus Christi, Bryan, Dallas, Atlanta, Beaumont, Pharr, Laredo,
   1-15  Brownwood, El Paso, and Childress.  The department is exempt from
   1-16  any law purporting to require the department to conform the
   1-17  provision of its services to service regions other than the
   1-18  districts established under this article.
   1-19        (b)  The department may have as many offices for maintenance
   1-20  and construction personnel in a district as the commission
   1-21  determines necessary.
   1-22        (c) <(b)>  In determining the <number and> boundaries of a
   1-23  district, the commission shall consider all cost and benefit
   1-24  factors including the highway activity and the number of employees
    2-1  required to staff a proposed district.
    2-2        (d) <(c)>  The commission shall periodically review the
    2-3  necessity for the <number of districts and for the> number of
    2-4  maintenance, construction, and support operations in each district
    2-5  and shall submit the findings of this review to the Legislative
    2-6  Budget Board as part of any budget request the department shall be
    2-7  required to file with that commission.
    2-8        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
    2-9        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-10  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-11  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
   2-12  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-13  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.