By:  Nixon, Montford                                  S.B. No. 1511
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the acceptance of gifts by state agencies.
    1-2        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-3        SECTION 1.  Subtitle B, Title 5, Government Code, is amended
    1-4  by adding Chapter 575 to read as follows:
    1-5           CHAPTER 575.  ACCEPTANCE OF GIFT BY STATE AGENCY
    1-6        Sec. 575.001.  DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
    1-7              (1)  "Gift" includes a donation of money or property.
    1-8              (2)  "State agency" means a board, commission, council,
    1-9  committee, department, office, agency, or other governmental entity
   1-10  in the executive or judicial branch of state government.  The term
   1-11  does not include an institution of higher education as defined by
   1-12  Section 61.003, Education Code.
   1-13        Sec. 575.002.  ACCEPTANCE OF GIFT BY STATE AGENCY GOVERNING
   1-14  BOARD.  A state agency that has a governing board may accept a gift
   1-15  only if the agency has the authority to accept the gift and a
   1-16  majority of the board, in an open meeting, approves accepting the
   1-17  gift.
   1-18        Sec. 575.003.  RECORD OF GIFT.  A state agency that accepts a
   1-19  gift must record the name of the donor, a description of the gift,
   1-20  and a statement of the purpose of the gift in:
   1-21              (1)  the minutes of the governing board of the agency;
   1-22  or
   1-23              (2)  appropriate agency records, if the agency does not
   1-24  have a governing board.
    2-1        Sec. 575.004.  ACCEPTANCE OF GIFT FROM PARTY TO CONTESTED
    2-2  CASE PROHIBITED.  A state agency may not accept a gift from a
    2-3  person who is a party to a contested case before the agency until
    2-4  the 30th day after the date the decision in the case becomes final
    2-5  under Section 2001.144.  In this section, "contested case" has the
    2-6  meaning assigned by Section 2001.003.
    2-7        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-8  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-9  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-10  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-11  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-12  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-13  passage, and it is so enacted.