HBA-NIK, NIK H.B. 3641 76(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3641 By: Turner, Bob Public Safety 4/8/1999 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Various offenses related to the operation of a motor vehicle are handled through administrative hearings. Patterning such hearings after the administrative license revocation (ALR) program may make them more efficient. H.B. 3641 authorizes the public safety director to notify a person of the revocation or suspension of the person's driver's license, permit, or operating privilege. This bill requires a $50 processing fee for the hearing, provides the time frame in which the hearing is to take place, and requires the hearing to be heard by a judge of a municipal court or a justice of the peace of a county. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 521.291, Transportation Code, as follows: (a) Includes the provision that if a person meets one or more of the criteria listed in Section 521.294 (Suspension; Revocation), the public safety director (director) is authorized to notify the person, rather than the license holder, and to suspend or revoke the person's license, permit, or operating privilege, rather than to summon the license holder to appear at a hearing. Provides that notice is considered received on the fifth day after the date the notice is mailed. Makes conforming changes. (b) Requires, rather than authorizes, the notice to be sent by first class, rather than certified, mail to the person's most recent address as shown in the records of the Department of Public Safety (department), rather than on the holder's driver's license. Makes a conforming change. (c) Provides that the period of suspension is 90 days effective 40 days after the date the person is considered to have received the notice of suspension or revocation, if a hearing is not requested in a timely manner. SECTION 2. Amends Section 521.292, Transportation Code, to require a hearing to be held as provided by this subchapter (General Provisions Relating to License Denial, Suspension, or Revocation) if, not later than the specified time, the department receives at its headquarters in Austin in writing a request that a hearing be held. Provides that a $50 processing fee must be included with the request for hearing. Prohibits the department, if the $50 fee is not included, from processing the request. Provides that fees collected under this subsection are hereby appropriated to the department for the administration of this chapter (Driver's License and Certificate) and Chapter 601 (Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Act). Makes a conforming change. SECTION 3. Amends Section 521.293, Transportation Code, to require the hearing to be conducted not less than 10 days after the date of notification required by Section 521.292 (Written Changes Required), rather than Section 521.291 (Authority to Suspend or Revoke License; Notice; Hearing). Requires the department, rather than the presiding officer, to set the case for hearing at the earliest practical time. SECTION 4. Amends Section 521.294, Transportation Code, as follows: (b) Includes a person's permit or operating privilege among that which the presiding officer is required to determine should be suspended or revoked. Deletes text stating that the person's responsibility as an operator for any accident resulting in death is a reason requiring the presiding officer to determine the revocation or suspension of a person's license, permit, or operating privilege. Redesignates Subdivisions (3)-(6) to (2)-(5). (1) Makes a conforming change. (6) Redesignated from (7). Includes a person convicted on two or more occasions for violating a restriction, rather than an endorsement, imposed on the use of the license as a reason for the revocation or suspension of a person's license, permit, or operating privilege. (7) Includes a violation of an endorsement imposed on the use of the license as a reason for the revocation or suspension of a person's license, permit, or operating privilege. (c) Provides that if the hearing results in an affirmative finding that the person engaged in conduct proscribed in Subsection (b), except for Subsection (b)(1), the period of a suspension is not less than 30 days or more than one year. Makes a nonsubstantive change. (d) Redesignated from (c). (e) Redesignated from (d). Requires the presiding officer to determine whether a person's license should be revoked because the person, who is at least 14 years of age but younger than 17, has been reported within two years of an offense by a court for specified violations. Subsections (f)-(i) are redesignated from (e)-(h). SECTION 5. Amends Section 521.295, Transportation Code, to delete the entire text of this section, authorizing the director to give a license holder notice of a pending hearing by publication in a newspaper. SECTION5. (This bill contains an additional SECTION 5). Amends Section 521.301, Transportation Code, to provide that a suspension, cancellation, or revocation order is binding unless appealed as provided in Section 521.302 (Appeal; Judicial Review), rather than Section 521.303, or unless the hearing was timely requested under Section 521.291 in addition to Section 521.344 (g) (Suspension for Offenses Related to Use of Alcohol). SECTION 6. Amends Section 601.156, Transportation Code, to provide that a hearing under this subchapter is subject to the notice and hearing procedures of Section 521.291. Requires such a hearing to be heard by a judge of a municipal court or the justice of the peace of the county, rather than the precinct, in which the person requesting the hearing resides. Deletes text requiring the court to set a date for the hearing and the department to summon the person requesting the hearing. SECTION 7. Effective date: September 1, 1999. SECTION 8. Emergency clause. Effective date: upon passage.