H.B. 1948 78(R) BILL ANALYSIS H.B. 1948 By: Baxter Regulated Industries Committee Report (Unamended) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The electric utility restructuring legislative oversight committee was created to oversee the implementation of Senate Bill 7 (from the 76th Legislature). Currently, the chairs of the Senate Committee on Economic Development and the House Committee on State Affairs serve as the cochairs of the electric utility restructuring legislative oversight committee. With the structural changes in the House of Representatives and the Senate, responsibility for oversight of Senate Bill 7 has moved. HB 1948 will make the chair of the Senate Committee on Business and Commerce and the chair of the House Committee on Regulated Industries the joint chairs of the of the electric utility restructuring legislative oversight committee. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS This bill changes the joint chairmanship of the electric utility restructuring legislative oversight committee from the chairs of the Senate Committee on Economic Development and the House Committee on State Affairs to the chair of the Senate Committee on Business and Commerce and the chair of the House Committee on Regulated Industries. EFFECTIVE DATE Upon passage, or, if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2003.