BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 3114

By: Flores

Licensing & Administrative Procedures

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

In Texas, professional licensees are required to complete continuing education courses as a condition for license renewal. Under current law, registered professional land surveyors must complete eight hours of professional development courses annually as a condition for renewal of a certificate of registration. However, the continuing education requirement for surveyors in other states is generally higher, often 15-30 hours annually. By increasing the required hours of professional development courses, the Texas Board of Professional Land Surveying could require a portion of those courses to be in areas the board sees as the cause for the most complaint actions, including minimum technical standards, ethics, and jurisprudence.

H.B. 3114 increases the continuing education requirement for registered professional land surveyors from 8 to 16 hours annually to assure that licensees are well qualified to serve the citizens of Texas and decrease the number of consumer complaints.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Texas Board of Professional Land Surveying in SECTION 1 of this bill.

ANALYSIS

H.B 3114 amends the Occupations Code to increase to at least 16 hours, from not more than 8 hours, the hours of a continuing professional education course that a registered professional land surveyor is required to complete annually as a condition of the renewal of the surveyor's certificate of registration and as provided the Texas Board of Professional Land Surveying by rule. The bill makes its provisions applicable only to a certificate of registration that expires on or after January 1, 2010. The bill requires the board to adopt rules for this provision not later that November, 1 2009.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2009.