BILL ANALYSIS H.B. 2133 By: Combs (Bivins) Natural Resources 05-19-95 Senate Committee Report (Unamended) BACKGROUND Under current law, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department employees are authorized to enter the land of private property owners to conduct scientific investigations and research regarding wild game and fish. Often entry occurs without the consent of the property owner. In addition, no restrictions exist on who has access to the information obtained during entry. PURPOSE As proposed, H.B. 2133 restricts the ways in which information obtained by employees of the Parks and Wildlife Department from a private landowner's property may be used, and requires the landowner's consent for certain uses of the information. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 12.103, Parks and Wildlife Code, as follows: Sec. 12.103. New heading: ENTERING LAND; USE OF INFORMATION OBTAINED BY ENTRY; CIVIL PENALTY. (a) Prohibits any action from being sustained against an employee of the Parks and Wildlife Department (department) to prevent the employee's entering on land or water when acting in the employee's official capacity as described by this subsection. (b) Authorizes the department, except as provided by Subsection (d), to use information collected by an employee of the department on privately owned land for the purposes of scientific investigations and research described in Subsection (a) and only if authorized in writing by the landowner or landowner's agent (agent). Prohibits the department, unless it first obtains the written consent of the landowner or agent, from using other incidental information obtained on the land that does not pertain directly to the investigation or research authorized under Subsection (a), or from entering or permitting entry of any information that does not pertain directly to the investigation or research authorized under Subsection (a) into certain databases. (c) Authorizes information collected under this section to be reported or compiled only in a manner that prevents the identification of an individual parcel or specific parcels of private property without the written consent of the landowner or agent, except as provided by Subsection (d). (d) Authorizes the department to collect and enter data as necessary relating to the occurrence or harvest of natural resources in public land or water, and to collect and report standardized annual wildlife survey information required by the Pitman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act (16 U.S.C. Section 669 et seq.). (e) Provides that the department is liable to a private landowner for a civil penalty of $1,000 for a violation of this section involving information collected by a department employee on the landowner's property. Authorizes a landowner to bring suit to collect the penalty in the county in which the land is located or the county in which the landowner resides. SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 1995. SECTION 3. Emergency clause.