By Yarbrough                                          H.B. No. 1653
       74R5998 PAM-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to administrative hearings under the Alcoholic Beverage
    1-3  Code.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 5.43, Alcoholic Beverage Code, is amended
    1-6  to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 5.43.  Who May Hold Hearing; Rules of Evidence.  (a)
    1-8  Except as provided by Subsection (b) <for a hearing held under
    1-9  Section 61.32 of this code, a hearing on the adoption of commission
   1-10  rules, or a hearing on an employment matter>, the commission
   1-11  designates the State Office of Administrative Hearings to conduct
   1-12  and make a record of any hearing authorized by this code.
   1-13        (b)  Subsection (a) does not apply:
   1-14              (1)  to a hearing held under Section 61.32, a hearing
   1-15  on the adoption of commission rules, or a hearing on an employment
   1-16  matter; or
   1-17              (2)  if the commission or administrator contracts with
   1-18  a qualified individual to conduct and make a record of any hearing
   1-19  authorized by this code.
   1-20        (c)  The commission or administrator may render a decision on
   1-21  the basis of the record or the proposal for decision if one is
   1-22  required under Chapter 2001, Government Code, <the Administrative
   1-23  Procedure and Texas Register Act (Article 6252-13a, Vernon's Texas
   1-24  Civil Statutes)> as if the administrator or entire commission had
    2-1  conducted the hearing.  The commission may prescribe its rules of
    2-2  procedure for cases not heard by the State Office of Administrative
    2-3  Hearings.
    2-4        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-5  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-6  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-7  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-8  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-9  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-10  passage, and it is so enacted.