H.B. No. 2434
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.