| |
|
| |
|
|
By: Hamilton (Senate Sponsor - Janek) |
H.B. No. 2694 |
|
|
(In the Senate - Received from the House May 8, 2007; |
|
|
May 10, 2007, read first time and referred to Committee on |
|
|
Transportation and Homeland Security; May 17, 2007, reported |
|
|
favorably by the following vote: Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 17, 2007, sent |
|
|
to printer.) |
| |
|
|
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
|
|
|
AN ACT
|
| |
|
|
relating to the disaster contingency fund. |
|
|
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: |
|
|
SECTION 1. Section 418.073, Government Code, is amended by |
|
|
amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsections (c) and (d) to read |
|
|
as follows: |
|
|
(b) [If the governor finds that the demands placed on funds
|
|
|
regularly appropriated to state and local agencies are unreasonably
|
|
|
great for coping with a particular disaster, the governor with the
|
|
|
concurrence of the disaster emergency funding board may make funds
|
|
|
available from the disaster contingency fund.] It is the intent of |
|
|
the legislature that in responding to an emergency or disaster, the |
|
|
first recourse of state and local agencies should be to the funds |
|
|
regularly appropriated to those [state and local] agencies. |
|
|
(c) A state agency, local government, or other eligible |
|
|
entity may request funding from the disaster contingency fund to |
|
|
pay for: |
|
|
(1) extraordinary costs incurred in implementing |
|
|
preventive measures taken before or during an emergency; and |
|
|
(2) costs incurred in repairing damage suffered during |
|
|
a disaster for which: |
|
|
(A) the presiding officer of a municipal or |
|
|
county government has declared a local state of disaster for |
|
|
affected areas within the jurisdiction of the municipality or |
|
|
county; |
|
|
(B) the governor has also declared a state of |
|
|
disaster for the affected county or counties; and |
|
|
(C) the federal government has not issued an |
|
|
emergency or disaster declaration for the affected area that would |
|
|
activate federal emergency assistance. |
|
|
(d) The governor's division of emergency management shall |
|
|
administer the disaster contingency fund and shall develop and |
|
|
implement rules and procedures for providing emergency assistance |
|
|
from the fund. |
|
|
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives |
|
|
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as |
|
|
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this |
|
|
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this |
|
|
Act takes effect September 1, 2007. |
|
|
|
|
|
* * * * * |