BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2345

By: Walle

Homeland Security & Public Safety

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The report issued by the Governor’s Commission to Rebuild Texas, which was established following Hurricane Harvey, included recommendations relating to resources to facilitate disaster mitigation, response, and recovery. C.S.H.B. 2345 seeks to act on certain of those recommendations by requiring the Texas Water Development Board to create a comprehensive inventory of needed mitigation and resiliency projects statewide, by establishing the Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas, and by establishing the Flood Event Partnership Options Special Study Committee.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

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

C.S.H.B. 2345 amends the Education Code to establish the Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas as a component of Texas A&M University under the management and direction of the board of directors of The Texas A&M University System. The bill sets out the institute's duties with respect to disaster planning, mitigation, response, and recovery and flood planning and mitigation. The bill authorizes the institute to employ personnel and to accept a gift or grant from any public or private source for its benefit.

C.S.H.B. 2345 amends the Water Code to require the Texas Water Development Board to create an inventory of flood mitigation and resiliency projects, develop a method of prioritizing such projects, and coordinate with the Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas.

C.S.H.B. 2345 establishes the Flood Event Partnership Options Special Study Committee to study the appropriate structure, means of administration, and membership of state-local partnerships to address flooding events in Texas. The bill sets out the factors to be addressed in the study and requires the committee to deliver a report not later than December 1, 2020, on its determinations based on the study to specified state and legislative officers and each member of the legislature and to deliver related information to those persons on request. The bill sets out the committee's composition, requires the governor to appoint the committee members not later than October 1, 2019, and requires The Texas A&M University System to provide the committee certain assistance and resources on request. The committee is abolished and these provisions expire May 1, 2021.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2019.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 2345 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

The substitute includes applicable updated inundation maps among the comprehensive flood-related information the institute is required to collect, display, and communicate. The substitute includes counties among the local governmental entities for which a member of the Flood Event Partnership Options Special Study Committee is appointed to represent. The substitute changes the deadline by which the committee is required to deliver the report from September 1, 2020, to December 1, 2020.