BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 1832

By: Corte

Defense & Veterans' Affairs

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Current law allows for specialty license plates for the military.  Among the specialty plates allowed are plates for Korean War veterans, Vietnam veterans, and Distinguished Flying Cross Medal Recipients.  However, there are no specialty plates for the French Legion of Honor recipients who fought in the liberation of France during World War II. 

C.S.H.B. 1832 directs the Texas Department of Transportation to issue French Legion of Honor specialty license plates for recipients of the French Legion of Honor and provides that the person must be honorably discharged from the United States armed services to be issued the specialty license plate.

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

C.S.H.B. 1832 amends the Transportation Code to require the Texas Department of Transportation to issue specialty license plates for a person who has received the French Legion of Honor and was honorably discharged from the armed forces of the United States. The bill requires the license plates to include the words "Legion of Honor." The bill includes the French Legion of Honor specialty plates in provisions for a $3 fee for military license plates and the fee exemption for replacement of lost, stolen, or mutilated plates. The bill makes provisions related to filing a request for and depositing money for specialty license plates authorized to be issued by a law that takes effect on or after January 1, 1999, inapplicable to Legion of Honor license plates.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2009.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 1832 differs from the original by adding the Legion of Honor plates to a provision requiring a $3 fee for issuing one set of specialty license plates. The substitute adds a clarification not in the original relating to the requirement for issuance of the plates that a recipient was honorably discharged from the United States armed forces.