By Hilbert                                            H.B. No. 2512
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to continued operation under a license after judicial
    1-3  review of a contested case.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  It is the intent of the legislature in enacting
    1-6  this subsection to provide for the continuity of businesses and
    1-7  activities licensed or permitted by the state.  The legislature
    1-8  hereby finds and declares that the interruption of licensed
    1-9  businesses or activities due to clerical or procedural defects in
   1-10  the license is harmful to the public interests of the state and
   1-11  that this subsection is enacted for the purpose of avoiding such
   1-12  interruptions when they are not necessitated by direct and
   1-13  substantiated concerns for public health, safety, or the
   1-14  environment.
   1-15        SECTION 2.  Section 19, Administrative Procedure and Texas
   1-16  Register Act (Article 6252-13a, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is
   1-17  amended by adding Subsection (h) to read as follows:
   1-18        (h)  Notwithstanding any other section of this Act or other
   1-19  acts, if the reviewing court reverses an agency order for
   1-20  procedural or clerical defects and remands the case to the agency
   1-21  or lower court, the licensee under the order may continue to
   1-22  operate pursuant to the license (i)  if the defect is one that is
   1-23  subject to correction by the agency or other authority; or (ii)  if
    2-1  the defect is one that is subject to correction by the licensee and
    2-2  the licensee files a notice in writing within 30 days after remand
    2-3  to the agency or other authority of its intent to correct the
    2-4  defect and within 90 days thereafter files a correction submission
    2-5  of the defect with the agency.  If the licensee's correction
    2-6  submission meets or exceeds the requirements of the applicable law,
    2-7  the agency shall accept such submission.
    2-8              (1)  If the reviewing court reverses an agency order
    2-9  and remands the case, the agency or other authority on remand is
   2-10  limited solely to the consideration and correction of the error or
   2-11  errors addressed in the opinion or order of the court.
   2-12              (2)  This subsection shall apply to all licenses issued
   2-13  by the state agency on or after January 1, 1989.
   2-14              (3)  This subsection shall not apply to any defects
   2-15  that create a material risk to the public health, safety, or the
   2-16  environment nor shall this subsection be deemed to apply in
   2-17  situations where the state agency is acting pursuant to its
   2-18  enforcement powers.  The term "material risk," as used herein,
   2-19  means a significant danger to the public health, safety, or the
   2-20  environment that cannot be corrected by the licensee's proposed
   2-21  correction.
   2-22        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-23  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-24  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-25  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-1  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    3-2  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    3-3  passage, and it is so enacted.