BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 1892

By: Garcia

Defense & Veterans' Affairs

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The Texas Coordinating Council for Veterans Services coordinates the activities of state agencies assisting veterans, service members, and their families, coordinates outreach efforts to make such individuals aware of veterans services, and facilitates collaborative relationships among state, federal, and local agencies and private organizations to identify and address issues affecting veterans, service members, and their families.  Interested parties report that after the council's first year of meeting, it was evident that some agencies that play an important role in providing veterans' services were not included in the council's original composition. S.B. 1892 seeks to expand state agency representation on the council and to clarify and simplify the structure of the workgroups to allow more flexibility.

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

S.B. 1892 amends the Government Code to include in the composition of the Texas Coordinating Council for Veterans Services the director or executive head, as applicable, or that person's designated representative, of the following:  the office of acquired brain injury of the Health and Human Services Commission, the Department of State Health Services, the Department of Aging and Disability Services, the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services, the Department of Family and Protective Services, the Texas Workforce Commission, the Texas Workforce Investment Council, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, the Department of Public Safety, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the Commission on Jail Standards, the Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, the Texas Department of Transportation, the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, and the Office of Public Utility Counsel.

S.B. 1892 expands the specific issues addressed by the coordinating workgroups established by the council to focus on specific issues affecting veterans, servicemembers, and their families to include transportation and women veterans. The bill authorizes each member of the council to invite multiple organizations or agencies, rather than only one organization or agency, that provide services to veterans, servicemembers, and their families, but that are not otherwise members of the council, to each designate a representative to participate in a coordinating workgroup through procedures established by the council. The bill repeals statutory provisions prescribing additional council members based on the specific issue addressed by a coordinating workgroup the council elects to establish.

S.B. 1892 repeals Subsections (b), (c), (d), (e), and (f) of Section 434.154, Government Code.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2013.