73R7492 JJT-F
          By Saunders                                           H.B. No. 2434
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to ex parte communications in contested cases involving
    1-3  hazardous waste permits.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 361.0831, Health and Safety Code, is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 361.0831.  EX PARTE CONTACTS PROHIBITED.  (a)  Unless
    1-8  required for the disposition of ex parte matters authorized by law,
    1-9  or unless permitted by Section 17, Administrative Procedure and
   1-10  Texas Register Act (Article 6252-13a, Vernon's Texas Civil
   1-11  Statutes), a hearings examiner of the commission may not
   1-12  communicate, directly or indirectly, with any employee of the
   1-13  commission who is not an employee of the office of hearings
   1-14  examiners, any commissioner, or any party to a hearing conducted by
   1-15  the commission in connection with any issue of fact or law
   1-16  pertaining to a contested case in which the commission or party is
   1-17  involved.
   1-18        (b)  Except for communications allowed under Subsection (a),
   1-19  an <An> employee of the commission, a commissioner, or a party to a
   1-20  hearing conducted by the commission may not attempt to influence
   1-21  the finding of facts or the application of law or rules by a
   1-22  hearings examiner of the commission except by proper evidence,
   1-23  pleadings, and legal argument with notice and opportunity for all
    2-1  parties to participate.
    2-2        (c)  If a prohibited contact is made, the hearings examiner
    2-3  shall notify all parties with a summary of that contact and notice
    2-4  of their opportunity to respond <participate> and shall give all
    2-5  parties an opportunity to respond.
    2-6        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-7  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-8  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-9  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-10  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-11  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-12  passage, and it is so enacted.