BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 1527

By: Miller, Sid

Agriculture & Livestock

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

According to certain sources, the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) uses equipment calibrated at a department laboratory to test the accuracy of the weighing and measuring devices the TDA uses throughout Texas for its inspections. These sources further indicate that the federal agency that certifies the department's primary standards is phasing out its calibration and certification of state standards. H.B. 1527 proposes to provide the TDA with the authority to align the standards of weights and measures used by the state of Texas with those of a federally approved laboratory.  

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

H.B. 1527 amends the Agriculture Code, in provisions establishing the standards of weights and measures used by the state in the inspection of weighing or measuring devices, to provide as an alternative to the requirement that the Department of Agriculture submit at a certain interval such standards to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that the department submit the standards to a laboratory approved by NIST.  The bill establishes that the standards are the state's primary standards of measurement, rather than its official standards.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2011.