HBA-DMD H.B. 3342 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3342 By: Naishtat Public Safety 11/1/1999 Enrolled BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Prior to the 76th Legislature, the Transportation Code used the term "mental competency" when describing a person's capability to hold a driver's license. However, the Probate Code used the term "mental capacity" for the same situation. This may have led to confusion among probate judges who adjudicate guardianship cases in order to determine whether a person is fully or partially incapacitated and whether this person should have been able to retain a driver's license. H.B. 3342 prohibits the Department of Public Safety from issuing any license to a person who has been determined by a judgment of a court to be totally incapacitated or incapacitated to act as the operator of a motor vehicle unless the person has met certain conditions. This bill utilizes the term "capacity" in different forms in place of "competency." RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 521.201, Transportation Code, to prohibit the Department of Public Safety from issuing any license to a person who has been determined by a judgment of a court to be totally incapacitated or incapacitated to act as the operator of a motor vehicle, rather than who has been determined by a judgment of a court to be mentally incompetent, unless the person has, by the date of the license application, been restored to capacity, rather than competency, by judicial decree; or released from a hospital for the mentally incapacitated, rather than incompetent, on a certificate by the superintendent or administrator of the hospital that the person has regained capacity, rather than the person is competent. SECTION 2.Effective date: September 1, 1999. SECTION 3.Emergency clause.