HBA-DMD, PDH, RAR H.B. 127 76(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 127
By: McClendon
Corrections
3/1/1999
Introduced



BACKGROUND & PURPOSE 

In 1997, Texas inmates performed more than 3 million hours of work on
public projects. Under current law, the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice (department) is required to seek contracts with agencies and local
governments in order to provide inmate labor to those agencies and
governments. H.B. 127 requires the department when seeking projects for the
use of inmate labor to give priority to those projects that benefit the
public.  

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 497.091(b), Government Code, to require the
Texas Department of Criminal Justice to give priority to the use of inmate
labor while seeking contracts for service projects that benefit the public,
when seeking contracts with agencies and local governments to provide
inmate labor. 

SECTION 2.  Emergency clause.
            Effective date: upon passage.