| TO: | Honorable Robert Puente, Chair, House Committee on Natural Resources |
| FROM: | John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB3078 by West, George "Buddy" (Relating to state agency action to identify and address disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects on minority populations and low-income populations.), As Introduced |
This bill would require the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to establish an interagency working group on environmental justice. The working group would identify and address disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects on minority populations and low-income populations. A representative from various state agencies would serve on the working group.
The bill also places requirements on state agencies in achieving environmental justice as part of the agency's mission and developing agency strategies to address such issues. State agencies would be required to list programs, policies, planning, enforcement practices, and rules related to human health or the environment that impact the focus of an environmental justice strategy. State agencies would also be required to develop an environmental justice strategy, and provide periodic reports to the interagency workgroup concerning the strategy. The bill also contains nondiscrimination provisions, data collection provisions, research provisions, and the sharing of information related to the interagency workgroup. The bill also sets out the respective dates that tasks must be performed by the interagency workgroup and by the state agencies.
It is expected that any additional duties required of state agencies upon passage of the bill could be absorbed within existing agency resources.
| Source Agencies: | 302 Office of the Attorney General, 320 Texas Workforce Commission, 324 Department of Human Services, 455 Railroad Commission, 480 Texas Department of Economic Development, 501 Department of Health, 551 Department of Agriculture, 582 Commission on Environmental Quality, 802 Parks and Wildlife Department
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| LBB Staff: | JK, CL, TL
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