HBA-AMW C.S.H.B. 2653 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 2653 By: Geren Environmental Regulation 4/16/2001 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Currently, the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) requires entities under its jurisdiction, in certain cases, to issue public notices. In addition to requiring public notices from private entities, TNRCC also occasionally publishes public notices. Although the intent of a public notice is to properly inform the public of impending actions with environmental impacts, many notices are written in highly specialized, technical, or legal language that may be difficult to understand or inappropriate for the readership of the notice. C.S.H.B. 2653 requires TNRCC to provide for each public notice to include at the beginning of the notice a succinct and informative summary statement of the subject of the notice. 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 5.127, Water Code) and SECTION 2 of this bill. ANALYSIS C.S.H.B. 2653 amends the Water Code to require the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) by rule to provide for each public notice issued or published by TNRCC or by a person under the jurisdiction of TNRCC as required by law or TNRCC rule to include at the beginning of the notice a succinct statement of the subject of the notice. The bill requires TNRCC to adopt these rules to take effect not later than March 1, 2002, and sets forth that the rules must provide that a summary statement must be designed to inform the reader of the subject matter of the notice without having to read the entire text of the notice. The bill prohibits the summary statement from being grounds for challenging the validity of the proposed action for which the notice was published. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.H.B. 2653 differs from the original bill by requiring the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) by rule to provide for each public notice, rather than standards for the form and content of notices, and adds the provision that the statement include at the beginning of the notice a succinct statement of the subject of the notice. The substitute modifies the original bill by providing that the rules must provide that a summary statement must be designed to inform the reader of the subject matter of the notice without having to read the entire text of the notice, rather than the rules must require that the form and content of notices be clear and understandable to members of the general public. The substitute adds provisions regarding the design of the summary statement and prohibiting a summary statement from being grounds for challenging the validity of the proposed action.