| TO: | Honorable Lois W. Kolkhorst, Chair, House Committee on Public Health |
| FROM: | John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB1358 by Keffer (Relating to the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted |
The bill would abolish the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Scientific Research and Preventions Programs Committee and allow the executive director to establish ad hoc committees. The bill creates the university advisory committee and establishes its membership. Members of the university advisory committee and other ad hoc committee members would be eligible to receive reimbursement for actual expenditures related to attending meetings and other official duties relating to the committees. In addition, the bill requires that an ad hoc committee be established to address childhood cancers. The bill establishes criteria for membership in the committees, including the university advisory committee. The Cancer Prevention and Research Oversight Committee also would be authorized to create advisory committees to advise the Oversight Committee on matters relating to cancer.
The bill allows the salaries of the executive director and other senior institute staff to be supplemented from gifts, grants, donations, or appropriations.
The bill establishes a definition for indirect costs for grant awards relating to cancer research, and expands the use of research grant awards to allow for the purchase, remodel and renovation of facilities, and requires that such projects benefit cancer prevention and research.
The bill requires the Oversight Committee to issue rules for awarding grants and establishes certain criteria for the grants. In approving applications, the Oversight Committee would be required to follow recommendations of the executive director, unless two-thirds of the members vote otherwise.
The bill provides that certain information is deemed public under Chapter 552, Government Code for grant recipients.
The bill would take effect immediately upon a two-thirds vote of each house; otherwise it would take effect September 1, 2009.
| Source Agencies: | 542 Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas
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| LBB Staff: | JOB, CL, MS
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