By Kuempel                                            H.B. No. 2712
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to removing the authority of certain local governments to
    1-3  participate directly in regional habitat conservation plans;
    1-4  requiring the Parks and Wildlife Department to coordinate with
    1-5  governmental entities affected by the plan and to submit the plan
    1-6  to the legislature for review.
    1-7        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-8        SECTION 1.  Section 83.006, Parks and Wildlife Code, is
    1-9  amended to read as follows:
   1-10        Sec. 83.006.  Regional Plans for Endangered Species
   1-11  Protection.  (a)  The department <and any county or city within the
   1-12  state> may participate in the study, preparation, and creation of a
   1-13  regional habitat conservation plan, as specified by the United
   1-14  States Fish and Wildlife Service (50 CFR Section 17.22), to be
   1-15  submitted to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for
   1-16  approval.
   1-17        (b)  Any regional plan designed to protect or manage an
   1-18  "endangered species" as defined in 16 U.S.C. Section 1531 et seq.
   1-19  must be developed in coordination with any other state agency or
   1-20  local government that may be affected by the plan, including the
   1-21  Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, Texas Water
   1-22  Development Board, Texas Department of Transportation, Texas
   1-23  Department of Agriculture, General Land Office, Railroad Commission
   1-24  of Texas, and Texas Department of Commerce.  A plan developed under
    2-1  this subsection must <shall> be submitted to the legislature <Parks
    2-2  and Wildlife Department> for review and comment before it is
    2-3  submitted to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for
    2-4  approval.
    2-5        <(c)  In order to protect threatened and endangered species
    2-6  as defined in Section 3 of the federal Endangered Species Act of
    2-7  1973 and in Chapter 68, Parks and Wildlife Code, a city, both
    2-8  within its corporate limits and its extraterritorial jurisdiction,
    2-9  and a county may:>
   2-10              <(1)  participate in the development of a regional
   2-11  habitat conservation plan as specified by the United States Fish
   2-12  and Wildlife Service (50 CFR Section 17.22) and may require
   2-13  information on the presence of threatened or endangered species
   2-14  from permit applicants wishing to initiate a project in a defined
   2-15  suitable habitat;>
   2-16              <(2)  enforce a regional habitat conservation plan that
   2-17  has been formally approved for a given species or multiple species
   2-18  by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, provided that a
   2-19  city may not enforce outside its corporate limits any ordinance,
   2-20  rule, or regulation designed to protect or manage an endangered
   2-21  species unless the requirement imposed under the ordinance, rule,
   2-22  or regulation is specifically prescribed by the regional habitat
   2-23  conservation plan;>
   2-24              <(3)  allow credits, modifications, and waivers of
   2-25  other regulations to offset problems caused by the protection of
   2-26  threatened or endangered species; and>
   2-27              <(4)  purchase land or execute leases and easements to
    3-1  protect the habitat of a threatened or endangered species.>
    3-2        SECTION 2.  This Act does not impair the validity of an
    3-3  easement or lease executed under Section 83.006, Parks and Wildlife
    3-4  Code, before the effective date of this Act.
    3-5        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-6  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-7  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-8  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-9  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   3-10  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   3-11  passage, and it is so enacted.