TWT H.B. 920 75(R)BILL ANALYSIS TRANSPORTATION H.B. 920 By: Jones, Delwin 3-6-97 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND Presently, trucks haul modules of cotton to the cotton gin and return to the farm with empty trucks. Cotton burrs are collected from the gin by truck (not the same as the cotton module) with a 20-foot bed and no specialized attachments and then returned to the farm. A cotton burr spreader attachment will haul twice as much and spread it in one and one-half minutes as opposed to 10 minutes with the current process. The attachment makes the pick-up and spreading of cotton burrs more efficient and cost-effective. PURPOSE H.B. 920 allows a burr spreader on a highway or road and increases the maximum width of a truck allowed on a highway or road from nine feet to 10 feet. H.B. 920 allows cotton burrs to be loaded in the truck at the gin and be returned to the farm where it is spread on the ground to conserve water and add humus to the soil. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 502.277(a), Transportation Code, by clarifying that cotton burrs can be transported by single motor vehicle which is not more than 10 feet wide. SECTION 2. Amends Section 622.101, Transportation Code, to include the operation of a burr spreader attachment on a highway or road and accommodates for this attachment by increasing the maximum width of a single motor vehicle used to transport cotton burrs and seed cotton modules from nine feet to 10 feet. SECTION 3. Emergency clause. Effective upon passage. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE Substitute adds new Section 1. Renumbers remaining sections accordingly.