By Puente                                             H.B. No. 1780
         76R3416 MXM-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to determining the location for public display of a Texas
 1-3     artifact when the exhibit site is being disputed.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 191, Natural Resources
 1-6     Code, is amended by adding Section 191.0585 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 191.0585.  DISPUTE OVER WHERE TO DISPLAY AN ARTIFACT.
 1-8     (a)  A political subdivision may object to the committee about the
 1-9     location for public display of an item described in this chapter.
1-10     A political subdivision may object only if the political
1-11     subdivision proposes a suitable location in its territory for
1-12     displaying the item and the item was discovered in or recovered
1-13     from the political subdivision's territory.
1-14           (b)  The resolution of an objection made under this section
1-15     is a contested case under Chapter 2001, Government Code.  An
1-16     administrative law judge employed by the State Office of
1-17     Administrative Hearings shall conduct the hearing under Section
1-18     2001.058.  The judge shall propose and the committee shall order
1-19     that the item be displayed in the location proposed by the
1-20     political subdivision unless the item is more closely connected to
1-21     the history of another region of the state or unless moving the
1-22     item to or maintaining the item in the location proposed by the
1-23     political subdivision would harm or endanger the preservation or
1-24     restoration of the item.  In determining whether granting the
 2-1     political subdivision's proposal would harm or endanger the
 2-2     preservation or restoration of the item, the judge and committee
 2-3     shall consider the following factors:
 2-4                 (1)  the cost to display the item;
 2-5                 (2)  security;
 2-6                 (3)  the qualifications of the current and proposed
 2-7     curator of the item;
 2-8                 (4)  insurance; and
 2-9                 (5)  any other factor that the judge or committee
2-10     considers relevant in preserving or restoring the item.
2-11           (c)  If after receipt of the administrative law judge's
2-12     proposal for decision the committee rules in favor of the political
2-13     subdivision, the committee shall arrange for the political
2-14     subdivision to display the item as a permanent exhibit in the
2-15     political subdivision's boundary under Section 191.058.
2-16           (d)  The committee shall remain the legal custodian of the
2-17     item.
2-18           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-19           (b)  Section 191.0585, Natural Resources Code, as added by
2-20     this Act, applies to an item discovered or recovered on, before, or
2-21     after the effective date of this Act.
2-22           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-23     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-24     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-25     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-26     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.