House Committee on State Affairs - 75th R.S. (1997)
Committee: | House State Affairs | |
Title: | Interim report | |
Library Catalog Title: | House Committee on State Affairs, Texas House of Representatives interim report, 1998 : a report to the House of Representatives, 76th Texas Legislature. | |
Subjects: | Alternative energy | Biotechnology industry | Business taxes | Campaign contributions | Campaign contributors | Campaign finance reform | Cloning | Councils of government | Electric utility deregulation | Ethics | Genetic research and testing | Long distance telephone service | Motor vehicles | Privacy | Public Utility Commission of Texas | Public Utility Regulatory Act | Soft money | State agencies | State taxes | Telephone deregulation | Telephone service | | |
Library Call Number: | L1836.75 st29h | |
Session: | 75th R.S. (1997) | |
Online version: | View report [119 pages File size: 6,856 kb] | |
Charges: | This report should address the charges below. | |
1. | Examine and evaluate the role of financial contributions in campaigns for election to state offices. Identify practices or trends that may be detrimental to the public good and study ways to eliminate or reverse those trends. (Joint with the House Committee on Elections) | |
2. | Study the threats to personal privacy due to technological advances in the capacity to store data and the increasing use of electronic transaction in government, business, and everyday life. Examine the uses made of such information by governments and commercial enterprises, and the potential for abuse. Assess legislative options. | |
3. | Review conditions in the telecommunications industry. Examine changes that have occurred since the passage of HB 2128, 74th R.S., and compare current conditions to expectations at the time of passage. Assess the need for revisions to keep the transition to competition on track. | |
4. | Inventory the kinds of public-private arrangements that currently exist in Texas government, and examine any new ethical or accountability issues that arise when the state relies on private entities in non-traditional ways. | |
5. | Study the legal, social, and economic issues likely to arise because of developments in the fields of genetics and bioethics. Such issues may include those related to altered foodstuffs, cloning, reproduction, eugenics, and genetic testing. | |
6. | Examine whether Regional Planning Commissions (COG's) have fulfilled the purposes for which they were established originally, and whether their functions or enabling legislation requires change. | |
7. | Examine the feasibility of combining agency automobile fleets into a pooled fleet that could be centrally administered to obtain efficiencies of operation. | |
8. | Assess the state and local tax impacts of possible changes in the structure of the electric power industry. |
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