BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 406

By: Fletcher

Transportation

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Many chiropractors treat patients with conditions that affect mobility. Interested parties contend that there is a need to minimize the number of health care providers a patient with a mobility problem must visit to request specialized license plates and parking placards for the patient's vehicle to help reduce costs incurred by the patient in terms of money, time, and additional pain. H.B. 406 seeks to address this concern by authorizing a chiropractor licensed in Texas or an adjacent state to complete a request for a disabled parking placard for the vehicle of a person with a temporary mobility problem.

Additionally, an individual seeking treatment for a temporary disability in a county other than of the individual's residence is currently unable to obtain a disability parking placard. H.B. 406 seeks to allow a patient with a temporary disability to obtain a disabled parking placard from the county in which the patient is being treating.

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. 406 amends the Transportation Code to require an application for a disabled parking placard to be submitted to the county assessor-collector of the county in which the person resides or is being treated at a medical facility if the person has a temporary disability. The bill specifies that the requirement for such an application otherwise to be submitted to the county assessor-collector by a person with a disability applies to the assessor-collector of the county in which the person resides if the person has a permanent disability. The bill authorizes the notarized written statement or written prescription required by law to accompany an initial application for a disabled parking placard for the vehicle of a person with a temporary mobility problem that substantially impairs the person's ability to ambulate to be issued by a person licensed to practice chiropractic in Texas or a state adjacent to Texas.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2013.