85R12130 JAM-F

By: Simmons H.B. No. 3826

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the approval by the Texas Department of Transportation of certain transportation projects of a regional mobility authority.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Section 370.038(a), Transportation Code, is amended to read as follows:

(a) The commission shall adopt rules that:

(1) govern the creation of an authority;

(2) govern [the commission's approval of a project under Section 370.187 and other] commission approvals required by this chapter;

(3) establish design and construction standards for a transportation project that will connect with a highway in the state highway system or a department rail facility;

(4) establish minimum audit and reporting requirements and standards;

(5) establish minimum ethical standards for authority directors and employees; and

(6) govern the authority of an authority to contract with the United Mexican States or a state of the United Mexican States.

SECTION 2. Section 370.187(b), Transportation Code, is amended to read as follows:

(b) The commission by rule shall establish procedures and criteria for the department's [an] approval of a transportation project that will connect with a highway in the state highway system or a department rail facility [under this section]. The procedures and criteria [rules] must:

(1) be based on safety and operational considerations; and

(2) require the department [commission] to consider a request for project approval not later than the 60th day after the date the department receives all information reasonably necessary to review the request.

SECTION 3. Section 370.187(a), Transportation Code, is repealed.

SECTION 4. Section 370.187, Transportation Code, as amended by this Act, applies only to a request for approval of a project that is submitted to the Texas Department of Transportation on or after the effective date of this Act. A request for approval of a project that is submitted before that date is governed by the law in effect on the date the request for approval was submitted, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.

SECTION 5. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this Act takes effect September 1, 2017.