By Combs                                              H.B. No. 2133
       74R3057 MI-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the authority of certain Parks and Wildlife Department
    1-3  employees to enter on private property and to the use of
    1-4  information obtained.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Section 12.103, Parks and Wildlife Code, is
    1-7  amended to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 12.103.  ENTERING LAND; USE OF INFORMATION OBTAINED BY
    1-9  ENTRY.  (a)  To enforce the game and fish laws of the state <and to
   1-10  conduct scientific investigations and research regarding wild game
   1-11  or fish>, an authorized employee of the department may enter on any
   1-12  land or water where wild game or fish are known to range or stray.
   1-13  No action may be sustained against an employee of the department to
   1-14  prevent his entering on land or water when acting in his official
   1-15  capacity as described by this subsection.
   1-16        (b)  No employee of the department may enter on privately
   1-17  owned land or water to conduct scientific investigations or
   1-18  research regarding wild game or fish or to inventory, survey, or
   1-19  otherwise collect data, in written or electronic form, on the fish
   1-20  and wildlife resources of the state unless the employee first
   1-21  obtains the written consent of the property owner.
   1-22        (c)  Except as provided by Subsection (d), the department may
   1-23  use information obtained solely as a result of an employee's entry
   1-24  on privately owned land or water only for the department's purposes
    2-1  and may not enter the information or permit the information to be
    2-2  entered into a database:
    2-3              (1)  maintained by the department and available to a
    2-4  person other than a department employee;
    2-5              (2)  maintained by a natural heritage program
    2-6  administered by the department; or
    2-7              (3)  established and maintained by any other person.
    2-8        (d)  A property owner from whose land or water information
    2-9  was obtained may consent in writing to a use of the information
   2-10  that would otherwise be prohibited under Subsection (c).
   2-11        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   2-12        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-13  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-14  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-15  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-16  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.