By: Birdwell  S.B. No. 1177
         (In the Senate - Filed March 8, 2021; March 18, 2021, read
  first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources &
  Economic Development; April 21, 2021, reported favorably by the
  following vote:  Yeas 8, Nays 0; April 21, 2021, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
 
  relating to the establishment of a task force to evaluate
  state-owned artifact collections.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  DEFINITION. In this Act, "task force" means the
  task force established under Section 2 of this Act.
         SECTION 2.  ESTABLISHMENT OF TASK FORCE. A task force is
  established to manage artifact collections owned by this state.
         SECTION 3.  TASK FORCE MEMBERSHIP. (a) The task force is
  composed of representatives of the:
               (1)  Texas Historical Commission;
               (2)  General Land Office;
               (3)  Texas State Library and Archives Commission;
               (4)  Parks and Wildlife Department;
               (5)  State Preservation Board; and
               (6)  Texas Facilities Commission.
         (b)  The executive director of each state agency represented
  on the task force shall appoint an employee of the agency to serve
  as the agency's representative on the task force not later than
  October 1, 2021.
         (c)  The member representing the Texas Facilities Commission
  must have engineering and architectural expertise.
         SECTION 4.  REIMBURSEMENT FOR EXPENSES. A member of the task
  force is not entitled to compensation for service on the task force
  but is entitled to reimbursement for travel expenses incurred by
  the member while conducting the business of the task force as
  provided by the General Appropriations Act.
         SECTION 5.  DUTIES OF TASK FORCE. For each state agency
  represented on the task force, the task force shall:
               (1)  evaluate the need for a separate collections
  facility for the agency and compare use of a separate collection
  facility to a secure centrally located joint collections facility
  with a processing laboratory for repair, cleaning, re-housing, and
  light conservation of state artifacts, including cost estimates for
  maintaining a separate collections facility for each agency
  compared to a joint collections facility;
               (2)  analyze the storage capacity for the agency's
  collections to determine whether the agency's collections facility
  is adequate for the agency's successful stewardship of its
  collections over the next five years and 10 years;
               (3)  review the option of establishing a
  disaster-secure collections facility with separate storage areas
  for each agency;
               (4)  review the recommendations in the Texas Historical
  Commission's December 2018 response to the Sunset Advisory
  Commission decisions on creating a searchable public catalog of
  state-owned collections to determine cost estimates for
  implementing the recommendations and a process for implementing the
  recommendations; and
               (5)  assess any unmet need of the agency regarding
  state-owned collections as determined by the task force.
         SECTION 6.  REPORT. Not later than December 1, 2022, the
  task force shall report the task force's findings and
  determinations under Section 5 of this Act to the governor,
  lieutenant governor, speaker of the house of representatives, and
  standing committees of each house of the legislature with primary
  jurisdiction over the history and culture of this state.
         SECTION 7.  EXPIRATION. The task force is abolished and this
  Act expires September 1, 2023.
         SECTION 8.  EFFECTIVE DATE. This Act takes effect September
  1, 2021.
 
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