HBA-MPA H.B. 134 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 134
By: McClendon
Public Health
3/21/1999
Committee Report (Amended)



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Currently, employers are required to provide chemical lists and material
safety data sheets to employees, but the law does not require prison
inmates to be trained to use and informed about safe use of hazardous
chemicals.  H.B. 134 requires the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to
inform inmates of hazardous chemicals they may handle. 

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 502.003(10), Health and Safety Code, to include
within the definition of "employees" for the purposes of this section a
person imprisoned by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and working
as a condition of the person's sentence. 

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

EXPLANATION OF AMENDMENTS

Amends  the introduced version of H.B. 134 by striking SECTION 1 and
replacing it with a new SECTION 1, as follows:   

SECTION 1.  Amends Subtitle D, Chapter 502, Health and Safety Code, by
adding Section 502.020, to require the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
(department) to provide a person imprisoned in a facility operated by or
for the department with protection from exposure to hazardous chemicals in
the workplace, although a person imprisoned in such a facility is not an
employee for the purposes of the Health and Safety Code.