By Bivins S.B. No. 123
76R2627 ESH-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to representation of a person before an executive state
1-3 agency by a member of the legislature.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 572.052(a), Government Code, is amended
1-6 to read as follows:
1-7 (a) A member of the legislature may not, for compensation,
1-8 represent another person before a state agency in the executive
1-9 branch of state government [unless:]
1-10 [(1) the representation:]
1-11 [(A) is made in a proceeding that is adversary
1-12 in nature or in another public hearing that is a matter of record;
1-13 or]
1-14 [(B) involves the filing of documents, contacts
1-15 with the agency, or other relations, that involve only ministerial
1-16 acts on the part of the commission, agency, board, department, or
1-17 officer; and]
1-18 [(2) the member discloses to the agency that the
1-19 member is being compensated for the representation].
1-20 SECTION 2. Section 572.021, Government Code, is amended to
1-21 read as follows:
1-22 Sec. 572.021. FINANCIAL STATEMENT REQUIRED. A state
1-23 officer, a partisan or independent candidate for an office as an
1-24 elected officer, and a party chairman shall file with the
2-1 commission a verified financial statement complying with Sections
2-2 572.022 through 572.024 [572.025].
2-3 SECTION 3. Section 572.025, Government Code, is repealed.
2-4 SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-5 SECTION 5. This Act applies only to representation before an
2-6 executive state agency for which a member of the legislature is
2-7 hired on or after September 1, 1999. Representation for which a
2-8 member of the legislature was hired before September 1, 1999, and
2-9 the reporting of that registration are governed by the law in
2-10 effect at the time the member was hired, and that law is continued
2-11 in effect for that purpose.
2-12 SECTION 6. The importance of this legislation and the
2-13 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-14 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-15 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-16 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.