By: Harris S.B. No. 1414
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to administrative hearings under the Alcoholic Beverage
1-2 Code.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Section 5.43, Alcoholic Beverage Code, is amended
1-5 to read as follows:
1-6 Sec. 5.43. Who May Hold Hearing; Rules of Evidence.
1-7 (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b) for a hearing held under
1-8 Section 61.32 of this code, a hearing on the adoption of commission
1-9 rules, or a hearing on an employment matter, the commission
1-10 designates the State Office of Administrative Hearings to conduct
1-11 and make a record of any hearing authorized by this code. If the
1-12 commission or administrator declares a hearing to be an emergency,
1-13 the State Office of Administrative Hearings shall assign an
1-14 administrative law judge or may contract with a qualified
1-15 individual within five days and set a hearing as soon as possible.
1-16 (b) The commission or administrator may render a decision on
1-17 the basis of the record or the proposal for decision if one is
1-18 required under the administrative procedure law, Chapter 2001,
1-19 Government Code, <Administrative Procedure and Texas Register Act
1-20 (Article 6252-13a, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes)> as if the
1-21 administrator or entire commission had conducted the hearing. The
1-22 commission may prescribe its rules of procedure for cases not heard
1-23 by the State Office of Administrative Hearings.
1-24 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
2-1 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-2 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-3 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-4 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-5 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-6 passage, and it is so enacted.