By Flores                                              H.B. No. 276
         76R2145 MI-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the requirement that the Texas Water Development Board
 1-3     hold periodic meetings regarding economically distressed area
 1-4     projects.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Subchapter K, Chapter 17, Water Code, is amended
 1-7     by  adding Section 17.9295 to read as follows:
 1-8           Sec. 17.9295.  MEETINGS REGARDING PENDING APPLICATIONS.  (a)
 1-9     During the time an application for financial assistance is pending
1-10     before the  board, the board shall hold quarterly meetings near the
1-11     affected area to report the status of the pending application and
1-12     to discuss reasons for any delay in processing the application.
1-13           (b)  Not later than the 30th day before the date of a
1-14     meeting, the board shall publish notice of the meeting in a
1-15     newspaper of general circulation in the affected area.  The notice
1-16     must be in both English and Spanish.
1-17           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-18     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-22     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-23     passage, and it is so enacted.