BILL ANALYSIS



C.S.H.B. 2945
By: Dukes
04-25-95
Committee Report (Substituted)


BACKGROUND

In 1991, the Texas Legislature enacted Senate Bill 1340 (SB 1340),
which established a number of ambitious recycling and waste
reduction programs at the state level and set a 40 percent
statewide recycling goal to be achieved by January 1, 1994.   In
1993, the Legislature revisited the issue and enacted Senate Bill
1051, which amended the goal to include source reduction as well as
recycling, and which directed the Texas Natural Resource
Conservation Commission (TNRCC), if the state did not meet the goal
by January 1, 1994, to convene a "40% Task Force" to study the
issues and make recommendations to the Legislature.  

As part of their Final Report, the 40% Task Force recommended that
the 40% source reduction and recycling goal be reauthorized without
a specific final deadline, and that the base year for calculating
the 40% goal be changed to 1992. 

PURPOSE

HB 2945 removes the 1994 goal deadline, changes the base year from
1991 to 1992, and calls for a task force to be convened if the goal
has not been achieved by 2001.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly
grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer,
department, agency or institution.

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.   Amends Section 361.422, Health and Safety Code as
follows:
     (a) Deletes the January 1, 1994 40% reduction and recycling
     goal deadline.
     (d) Changes "the municipal solid waste reduction goal" to the
     "state source reduction and recycling goal"; changes the base
     year for calculating the source reduction and recycling goal
     from 1991 to 1992; changes the computation toward the goal
     from comparing "total number of tons disposed in the year
     under comparison to the total number of tons disposed in the
     base year" to comparing "total number of tons disposed in the
     year under comparison to the weight of the total municipal
     solid waste stream in the base year."  
     (e) Requires the commission to determine, before January 1,
     2001, whether the goal established in subsection (a) is being
     achieved.  If it is not being achieved, the commission shall
     convene an advisory task force which is required to recommend
     a plan to the legislature for reaching the goal established in
     Subsection (a).

SECTION 2. Emergency clause.
           Effective date:  upon passage.


COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE

The committee substitute is a Legislative Council draft of the
original bill with no significant changes.




SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE ACTION

HB 2945 was considered by the House Committee on Environmental
Regulation in a public hearing on April 25, 1995.  The committee
considered a complete substitute which was adopted without
objection.  HB 2945 was reported favorably as substituted, with the
recommendation that it do pass and be printed, by a record vote of
five (5) ayes, no (0) nays, no (0) pnv, and four (4) absent.