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.