HBA-DMD H.B. 3342 76(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3342
By: Naishtat
Public Safety
4/19/1999
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Currently, the Transportation Code uses the term "mental competency" when
describing a person's capability to hold a driver's license. However, the
Probate Code uses the term "mental capacity" for the same situation. This
can lead 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 be 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.