BILL ANALYSIS |
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C.S.S.B. 1773 |
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By: Huffman |
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Elections |
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Committee Report (Substituted) |
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BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
The Sunset Advisory Commission, among other functions, identifies waste, duplication, and inefficiency in government agencies and recommends methods to eliminate such practices. Throughout the Sunset Advisory Commission's review of the Texas Ethics Commission, interested parties testified that the ethics commission would be more effective if the legislature made changes to numerous policies in ethics law. However, many of those policy recommendations did not fall within the scope of the Sunset Advisory Commission's mission and thus were not reviewed by the commission. C.S.S.B. 1773 seeks to address such matters by creating a select interim committee to study the effectiveness of laws and regulations related to ethics, including campaign finance, lobby laws, and personal financial disclosure laws, and to make recommendations for substantive changes to these laws.
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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.
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ANALYSIS
C.S.S.B. 1773 adds a temporary provision, set to expire December 21, 2014, to create a select interim committee to study and review the statutes and regulations related to ethics, including campaign finance laws, lobby laws, and personal financial disclosure laws. The bill requires the study to consider the purposes of the current laws and whether the laws accomplish those purposes, the effectiveness of the current laws, and what changes, if any, should be made to more effectively accomplish the purposes of the laws.
C.S.S.B. 1773 sets out the composition of the nine-member committee as follows: four members appointed by the lieutenant governor, including three senators and one member of the public; four members appointed by the speaker of the house of representatives, including three state representatives and one member of the public; and the presiding officer of the Texas Ethics Commission. The bill requires the lieutenant governor and speaker each to designate one of their respective legislative appointees to serve as co-chairs. The bill requires the committee members to be appointed not later than the 60th day after the bill's effective date and requires the committee to convene at the call of the co-chairs.
C.S.S.B. 1773 grants the committee all other powers and duties provided to a special or select committee by the rules of the senate and the house of representatives, by the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1961, and by policies of the senate and house committees on administration. The bill requires the committee, not later than December 20, 2014, to report the committee's findings and recommendations to the lieutenant governor, speaker of the house of representatives, and governor and to include in its recommendations specific statutory and rule changes that appear necessary from the results of the committee's study. The bill requires the Texas Legislative Council and the Texas Ethics Commission to provide any necessary staff and resources to the committee.
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EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2013.
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COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.S.B. 1773 may differ from the engrossed version in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following comparison is organized and highlighted in a manner that indicates the substantial differences between the engrossed and committee substitute versions of the bill.
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