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  Section 572.025, Government Code, is repealed.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.