By Cuellar of Webb                                     H.B. No. 459
       74R2884 MLR-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to contracts made by the Texas Commission on Fire
    1-3  Protection implementing the commission's volunteer program and to
    1-4  the membership of the volunteer firefighter advisory committee.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Section 419.071(b), Government Code, is amended
    1-7  to read as follows:
    1-8        (b)  The commission shall contract with one or more <a>
    1-9  statewide organizations <organization> whose members include both
   1-10  volunteer and paid fire fighters to administer and implement the
   1-11  program.  The commission in a <the> contract under this subsection
   1-12  shall reserve the right to evaluate the administration and
   1-13  implementation of the program under the contract and the right to
   1-14  observe and to require information from the other party to the
   1-15  contract so that the commission may perform a meaningful
   1-16  evaluation.
   1-17        SECTION 2.  Section 419.072(a), Government Code, is amended
   1-18  to read as follows:
   1-19        (a)  The commission shall establish a volunteer fire fighter
   1-20  advisory committee to assist the commission in matters relating to
   1-21  volunteer fire fighters and volunteer fire departments.  The
   1-22  committee shall be composed of nine members appointed by the
   1-23  commission.  Six members must be volunteer fire fighters who
   1-24  collectively represent various areas in the field of fire
    2-1  protection.  Three members must be instructors of volunteer fire
    2-2  fighters.  Six of the nine members must be appointed from separate
    2-3  lists <a list> submitted each year before September 1 to the
    2-4  commission by, respectively, the State Firemen's and Fire Marshals'
    2-5  Association of Texas and the Texas Association of Hispanic
    2-6  Firefighters.  The commission may not select all six members from
    2-7  any single list.  A committee member:
    2-8              (1)  serves at the will of the commission;
    2-9              (2)  serves for a one-year term that expires February
   2-10  1; and
   2-11              (3)  may be reappointed to the committee after the
   2-12  expiration of a term.
   2-13        SECTION 3.  As the terms of the members of the volunteer
   2-14  firefighter advisory committee expire, or as a vacancy occurs on
   2-15  the committee, the Texas Commission on Fire Protection shall
   2-16  appoint members to the committee in accordance with Section
   2-17  419.072(a), Government Code, as amended by this Act.
   2-18        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-19  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-20  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-21  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-22  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-23  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-24  passage, and it is so enacted.