By Nixon                                              S.B. No. 1511
       74R7677 ESH-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the acceptance of gifts by state agencies.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subtitle B, Title 5, Government Code, is amended
    1-5  by adding Chapter 575 to read as follows:
    1-6           CHAPTER 575.  ACCEPTANCE OF GIFT BY STATE AGENCY
    1-7        Sec. 575.001.  DEFINITIONS.  In this chapter:
    1-8              (1)  "Gift" includes a donation of money or property.
    1-9              (2)  "State agency" means a board, commission, council,
   1-10  committee, department, office, agency, or other governmental entity
   1-11  in the executive or judicial branch of state government.  The term
   1-12  does not include an institution of higher education as defined by
   1-13  Section 61.003, Education Code.
   1-14        Sec. 575.002.  ACCEPTANCE OF GIFT BY STATE AGENCY GOVERNING
   1-15  BOARD.  A state agency that has a governing board may accept a gift
   1-16  only if the agency has the authority to accept the gift and a
   1-17  majority of the board, in an open meeting, approves accepting the
   1-18  gift.
   1-19        Sec. 575.003.  RECORD OF GIFT.  A state agency that accepts a
   1-20  gift must record the name of the donor, a description of the gift,
   1-21  and a statement of the purpose of the gift in:
   1-22              (1)  the minutes of the governing board of the agency;
   1-23  or
   1-24              (2)  appropriate agency records, if the agency does not
    2-1  have a governing board.
    2-2        Sec. 575.004.  ACCEPTANCE OF GIFT FROM PARTY TO CONTESTED
    2-3  CASE PROHIBITED.  A state agency may not accept a gift from a
    2-4  person who is a party to a contested case before the agency until
    2-5  the 30th day after the date the decision in the case becomes final
    2-6  under Section 2001.144.  In this section, "contested case" has the
    2-7  meaning assigned by Section 2001.003.
    2-8        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-9  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-10  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-11  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-12  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-13  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-14  passage, and it is so enacted.