House Committee on State Affairs - 75th R.S. (1997)
Committee Members
Charges
- 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)
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Examine the feasibility of combining agency automobile fleets into a pooled fleet that could be centrally administered to obtain efficiencies of operation.
- Assess the state and local tax impacts of possible changes in the structure of the electric power industry.
- Conduct active oversight of agencies under the committee's jurisdiction.
Information on this website is provided as a public service by the Legislative Reference Library. The Legislative Reference Library makes no representation as to its completeness or accuracy and makes no warranty in regard to its use. Users assume all risk of reliance on the information included on this site.