By Hilbert                                            H.B. No. 2512
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to administrative appeals.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting
    1-5  this subsection to provide for the continuity of businesses and
    1-6  activities licensed or permitted by the State.  The Legislature
    1-7  hereby finds and declares that the interruption of licensed
    1-8  businesses or activities due to clerical or procedural defects in
    1-9  the license is harmful to the public interests of the State and
   1-10  that this subsection is enacted for the purpose of avoiding such
   1-11  interruptions when they are not necessitated by direct and
   1-12  substantiated concerns for public health, safety or the
   1-13  environment.
   1-14        SECTION 2.  New section to be added to the Administrative
   1-15  Procedure & Texas Register Act, Tex. Rev. Civ. Stat. Ann. art.
   1-16  6252-13a, to be codified at section 19(h) is to read as follows:
   1-17        (h)  Notwithstanding any other section of this Act or other
   1-18  acts, in the event that a license issued by a State agency is
   1-19  determined to be defective, the licensee may continue to operate
   1-20  pursuant to the license provided that the licensee proceeds in good
   1-21  faith to rectify the defect at the earliest possible time.
   1-22              (1)  If the correction of the defect requires
   1-23  additional hearings before the agency, the operating authority
    2-1  under the license shall be extended until such time as all hearings
    2-2  have been completed and the agency issues a final decision on the
    2-3  subject of the hearing.  Provided, however, that in the event that
    2-4  the correction of a defect requires additional hearings before the
    2-5  State agency, the hearings shall be limited in scope to the
    2-6  specific defect or defects identified.
    2-7              (2)  This subsection shall apply to all licenses issued
    2-8  by the State agency on or after January 1, 1989.
    2-9              (3)  This subsection shall not apply to any defects
   2-10  which create a material risk to the public health, safety or the
   2-11  environment nor shall this subsection be deemed to apply in
   2-12  situations where the State agency is acting pursuant to its
   2-13  enforcement powers.
   2-14        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-15  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-16  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-17  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-18  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-19  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-20  passage, and it is so enacted.