By: Canales H.B. No. 4434
 
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to navigation districts.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 5007.001, Special District Local Laws
  Code, is amended to read as follows:
         Sec. 5007.001.  DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
               (1)  "Authority" means the Port of Houston Authority of
  Harris County, Texas.
               (2)  "Executive director" means the executive director
  of the authority.
               (3)  "Port commission" means the navigation and canal
  commission of the authority.
               (4)  "Port commissioner" means a member of the port
  commission.
               (5)  "Harbormaster" means an official who supervises
  operations in the Houston Ship Channel and administers its rules.
         SECTION 2.  Subchapter A, Chapter 60, Water Code, is amended
  by adding Section 60.005 to read as follows:
         Sec. 60.005.  WIDENING AND DEEPENING. A district may
  solicit and accept gifts, grants, and donations from any public or
  private source for the purposes of widening and deepening navigable
  channels of the district.
         SECTION 3.  Section 66.002, Transportation Code, is amended
  to read as follows:
         Sec. 66.002.  DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
               (1)  "Board" means the board of pilot commissioners for
  Harris County ports.
               (2)  "Consignee" means a person, including a master,
  owner, agent, subagent, firm, or corporation or any combination of
  those persons, who enters or clears a vessel at the office of the
  collector of customs.
               (3)  "Harbormaster" means an official who supervises
  operations in a Harris County port and administers its rules.
               (4)  "Harris County port" means a place in Harris
  County into which a vessel enters or from which a vessel departs and
  the waterway leading to that place from the Gulf of Mexico.
               (5)  "Pilot" means a person who is licensed as a branch
  pilot or certified as a deputy branch pilot under this chapter.
               (6)  "Pilotage rate" means the remuneration a pilot may
  lawfully charge a vessel for pilot services.
               (7)  "Pilot services" means acts of a pilot in
  conducting a vessel through the navigable water in this state and
  the ports in which the pilot is licensed or certified as a pilot.
               (8)  "Vessel" means an oceangoing, self-propelled
  vessel.
         SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.