C.S.H.B. 1792 78(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


C.S.H.B. 1792
By: Chisum
State Affairs
Committee Report (Substituted)



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

House Bill 2912, 77th Texas Legislature, called for the appointment of the
Joint Committee on the Office of Natural Resource Public Interest Counsel
and charged them to study the recommendations issued by the Sunset
Advisory Commission to strengthen the Office of Public Interest Counsel at
the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). 

In their report to the 78th legislature, the joint committee made the
following recommendations:  

"Allow the Public Interest Counsel to appeal rules packages, if it appears
that they were adopted without proper legal procedure or exceed the
authority of the TCEQ. 

Allow the Public Interest Counsel to appeal when the Commission has
substantially amended a proposal for decision from the State Office of
Administrative Hearings (SOAH), and appeal is necessary to serve the broad
public interest." 

The purpose of C.S.H.B. 1792 is to provide the required statutory changes
to implement these recommendations. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the committee that this bill does not expressly grant
any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department,
agency, or institution. 

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 1792 amends Section 5.275 of the Water Code to authorize the
Public Interest Counsel to contest the validity of rules adopted by TCEQ
on the basis that the rules were adopted without the proper legal
procedure or the rules exceed the commission's authority. 

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2003.  The Act applies only to a proposal for decision
amended by the TCEQ on or after the effective date, and to rates set or a
package of rules finally adopted by the TCEQ on or after that date.  


COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 1792 removes the provision in the original which allowed the
Public Interest Counsel to appeal a substantial amendment by the TCEQ to a
proposal for decision from SOAH if the appeal is necessary to serve broad
public interest.