Bill Text: TX HB5125 | 2023-2024 | 88th Legislature | Comm Sub

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Bill Title: Relating to the organization and operation of the legislative branch of state government.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2023-05-24 - Removed from local & uncontested calendar [HB5125 Detail]

Download: Texas-2023-HB5125-Comm_Sub.html

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By: Metcalf (Senate Sponsor - Hancock) H.B. No. 5125
(In the Senate - Received from the House May 3, 2023;
May 21, 2023, read first time and referred to Committee on
Administration; May 22, 2023, reported adversely, with favorable
Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 4, Nays 0;
May 22, 2023, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 5125 By: Springer

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the organization and operation of the legislative
branch of state government.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter B, Chapter 301, Government Code, is
amended by adding Sections 301.0161, 301.0291, 301.0321, and
301.036 to read as follows:
Sec. 301.0161. ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEES. (a) By rule or
resolution, each house may establish an administration committee.
(b) The senate administration committee shall perform the
duties and functions assigned to the committee by rule or
resolution.
(c) The house administration committee shall:
(1) adopt policies and determine guidelines for the
effective and efficient operation of the house, including the
appointment and discharge of employees and the use of state
property and facilities; and
(2) not later than the 60th day after the convening of
a regular session, prepare and distribute to all members a manual of
policy statements to include, but not be limited to, policies
pertaining to members as a class.
Sec. 301.0291. ADMINISTRATIVE HEAD OF HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES. (a) For purposes of any law applicable to the
legislature that requires an action by an administrative head of
agency and unless otherwise directed by resolution, the speaker is
the administrative head of agency for the house of representatives.
(b) As administrative head of the house of representatives,
the speaker may make any expenditures or transfers, including
expenditures and transfers necessary to discharge properly the
duties and responsibilities of the office of speaker, and perform
any function deemed necessary for the effective and efficient
operation of the house of representatives.
(c) The speaker may delegate all or part of the authority
granted under Subsections (a) and (b) to a house committee or
legislative officer as provided by law, rule, resolution, or
policy.
Sec. 301.0321. INTERNS. Notwithstanding Section 301.032 or
any other law, a member, officer, committee, or division of a house
of the legislature or the lieutenant governor may accept
uncompensated service from an individual participating in a bona
fide internship program approved by the committee on administration
of the respective house or for which the student receives academic
credit.
Sec. 301.036. COMMITTEES WITH LEGISLATIVE APPOINTEES. (a)
This section applies to any committee, council, board, commission,
or other body created or authorized by state law:
(1) that includes members appointed by the lieutenant
governor or the speaker; or
(2) for which the lieutenant governor or the speaker
designates the presiding officer.
(b) For an entity described by Subsection (a), the per diem
and travel expenses paid to a member of the entity shall be paid by
the state agency providing administrative support to the entity or
as otherwise directed by rider in the general appropriations act.
(c) An entity described by Subsection (a) is abolished on
the date of the sine die adjournment of the second regular session
of the legislature that begins after the date the entity is created.
This subsection does not apply to an entity that is created before
September 1, 2023.
(d) This section prevails to the extent of any conflict with
any other law. The application of this section to an entity
described by Subsection (a) may be altered only by an amendment to
this section.
(e) Subsection (c) does not apply to an entity that is a
state agency.
(f) In this section, "state agency" means a department,
commission, board, office, or other body that is in the executive or
judicial branch of state government and was created by the
constitution or statute, but does not include an advisory committee
administratively attached to a state agency.
SECTION 2. Section 301.035, Government Code, is amended to
read as follows:
Sec. 301.035. [JOINT] INTERIM COMMITTEE PER DIEM AND TRAVEL
EXPENSES. Unless a statute expressly provides otherwise, per diem
and travel expenses paid to a member of a joint committee
established by statute or an interim committee of a house created by
rule or resolution shall be paid by the house to which the member
belongs. The per diem and travel expenses paid to a public member of
the committee shall be paid by the office of the appointing entity.
SECTION 3. Section 301.072, Government Code, is amended by
adding Subsection (c) to read as follows:
(c) A state agency with charge and control of a state
building shall, as soon as practicable, notify each legislative
office or agency occupying the building of any planned or
anticipated activity described by Subsection (b)(4) that is
conducted, directed, or authorized by the state agency, including
an interruption in utilities, a maintenance or construction
activity likely to cause prolonged noise or vibration perceptible
in the space occupied by a legislative office or agency, a major
excavation project within 1,000 feet of any outer wall of the
building, or a change to or closure of a street or sidewalk adjacent
to the building or affecting vehicle or pedestrian access to the
building.
SECTION 4. Subchapter F, Chapter 301, Government Code, is
amended by adding Section 301.074 to read as follows:
Sec. 301.074. LEGISLATIVE AGENCY ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS.
(a) In this section:
(1) "Financial system" includes an accounting system,
payroll system, purchasing system, human resources information
system, or enterprise resource planning system.
(2) "Legislative agency" has the meaning assigned by
Sections 326.001(1)(A)-(B) and (D)-(H).
(b) The administrative head of a legislative agency shall
oversee the agency's central business and administrative functions
and other matters vested in or delegated to the administrative
head.
(c) For purposes of this section, the administrative head of
the senate is the highest ranking officer or employee of the senate
with responsibility for the senate's financial functions.
(d) The director or other highest ranking employee, or that
person's designee, is the administrative head of a legislative
agency other than the senate or house of representatives.
(e) A legislative agency may use an internal financial
system selected by the administrative head of the agency.
(f) The comptroller shall provide an application
programming interface or other means mutually acceptable to the
administrative head of a legislative agency and the comptroller for
the legislative agency's internal financial system to exchange the
requisite financial and other data with the financial system of
record for this state necessary for the comptroller to pay each
agency's expenses from that agency's funds as held by the
comptroller.
(g) A legislative agency may use all or any part of a
financial system provided by the comptroller under Chapter 2101 or
other law as mutually agreed to by the administrative head of the
agency and the comptroller.
(h) This section prevails to the extent of a conflict
between this section and Chapter 2101.
SECTION 5. Section 323.006(b), Government Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(b) By agreement with either house of the legislature or a
legislative agency, the council may perform administrative,
accounting, purchasing, facilities management, or other services
or functions for or on behalf of the house or agency.
SECTION 6. Section 323.009(a), Government Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(a) The council may reimburse members-elect of the
legislature for travel expenses incurred in attending an
orientation program [conducted by the council] between the date of
the general election and the convening of the regular legislative
session.
SECTION 7. Section 325.003(a-1), Government Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(a-1) A public member acts on behalf of the legislature when
participating on the commission in furtherance of the legislature's
duty to provide oversight of state [executive branch] agencies'
implementation of legislative priorities.
SECTION 8. Section 325.004(a), Government Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(a) The commission shall employ an individual selected by
the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the house of
representatives as executive director of the commission. The
executive director acts [to act] as the executive head of the
commission.
SECTION 9. Section 325.012(c), Government Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(c) The commission shall have drafts of legislation
prepared to carry out the commission's recommendations under this
section. The commission may include in legislation prepared for the
commission that continues a state agency or advisory committee only
those recommendations that relate to the efficient functioning of
or procedural changes in the day-to-day administration,
management, or operation of the state agency or advisory committee.
The commission may include any recommendation authorized by this
chapter in legislation prepared for the commission that does not
continue a state agency or advisory committee.
SECTION 10. Section 468.003(b), Government Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(b) The Texas Legislative Council may [shall] provide
office space and other support in Austin necessary for the state
demographer to perform the demographer's duties for the
legislature.
SECTION 11. Section 2052.205(a), Government Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(a) A state agency shall send to the Legislative Reference
Library three physical [five] copies and one electronic copy of
each publication that it distributes.
SECTION 12. Section 6, Article 38.01, Code of Criminal
Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 6. ASSISTANCE. The [Texas Legislative Council, the
Legislative Budget Board, and The] University of Texas at Austin
shall assist the commission in performing the commission's duties.
SECTION 13. Section 31, Chapter 1250 (H.B. 4181), Acts of
the 86th Legislature, Regular Session, 2019, is amended to read as
follows:
Sec. 31. Records described by Section 301.041(b) or
301.043, Government Code, as added by this Act, or Section
301.020(e) or 323.018, Government Code, as amended by this Act, are
not subject to request, inspection, or duplication under Chapter
552, Government Code. A governmental body may withhold the records
without the necessity of requesting a decision from the attorney
general under Subchapter G, Chapter 552, Government Code.
SECTION 14. The following provisions of the Government Code
are repealed:
(1) Sections 325.019(b) and (c);
(2) Section 325.022;
(3) Section 2053.004;
(4) Chapter 2060; and
(5) Section 2206.101(e).
SECTION 15. This Act takes effect immediately if it
receives a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each
house, as provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution.
If this Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate
effect, this Act takes effect September 1, 2023.
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