HBA-AMW H.B. 3082 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3082
By: Burnam
Environmental Regulation
3/19/2001
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Advisory groups to the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission
(TNRCC) are an important avenue for public participation in environmental
issues.  TNRCC often uses these groups to provide input regarding
environmental concerns and to assist in the development of rules and
guidance documents which help set statewide environmental policy.  Although
current law requires advisory committees to TNRCC to have balanced
representation, TNRCC does not always maintain equal representation of
interested parties on advisory committees when adopting rules.  House Bill
3082 prohibits TNRCC from adopting rules in consultation with an advisory
committee or another group without an equal number of representatives from
each interested group on the committee. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that rulemaking
authority is expressly delegated to the Texas Natural Resource Conservation
Commission in SECTION 1 (Section 5.1031, Water Code) of this bill. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 3082 amends the Water Code to prohibit the Texas Natural
Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) from adopting a rule developed in
consultation with an advisory committee or another group unless the
committee or group consists of equal numbers of representatives for each
distinct group of persons who will be affected by the rule in a similar
way.  The bill authorizes a person affected by a rule adopted by TNRCC who
alleges that the rule was adopted in violation of  these provisions to file
suit seeking a declaratory judgment that the rule is invalid. 

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2001.