BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 3070

By: King, Ken

Agriculture & Livestock

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

It has been noted that the volunteer fire department assistance fund administered by the Texas A&M Forest Service can be used to help with the purchase of new firefighting equipment. There have been calls for the fund to also cover the cost of replacing or repairing equipment that is damaged or lost in responding to a disaster. C.S.H.B. 3070 seeks to allow grants from that fund to be used for those purposes.

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 rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the director of the Texas A&M Forest Service in SECTION 3 of this bill.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 3070 amends the Government Code to authorize a volunteer fire department whose equipment is damaged or lost in responding to a declared state of disaster in an area subject to the declaration to submit a request for emergency assistance from the volunteer fire department assistance fund administered for the replacement or repair of damaged or lost personal protective equipment or other firefighting equipment and for the purchase of a machine to clean personal protective equipment. 

C.S.H.B. 3070 includes such a volunteer fire department's need for emergency assistance from the fund among the reasonable criteria and qualifications the director of the Texas A&M Forest Service must determine for the distribution of money from the fund. The bill establishes that the procedure for processing requests for money from the fund must require the director to process a volunteer fire department's request for emergency assistance before any other type of request for assistance. The bill requires the director to adopt rules as necessary to implement the bill's provisions.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2019.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 3070 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 does not include the requirement for the forest service to maintain a separate account within the fund to contain money for awarding grants in response to a volunteer fire department's request for emergency assistance.

The substitute includes a provision requiring the director to process a volunteer fire department's request for money from the fund for emergency assistance before any other type of request for assistance.