State Agencies Undergo Sunset Review Process – Texas Board of Professional Engineers
Over the past month or so, I have been outlining Texas’ sunset review process. The agencies I have covered so far include the Texas Education Agency, the Correctional Managed Health Care Committee and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and several others. As a reminder, in order to identify and eliminate government waste, duplication and general inefficiencies in state agencies, the Texas Legislature established the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission in 1977. The sunset review process is designed to review each of these agencies every twelve years. This review is done by taking up a certain number of the state agencies each session when the Texas Legislature convenes.
In last week’s article we examined the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board which is responsible with providing the Texas higher education system with leadership and coordination. In this week’s article we are going to look at the Texas Board of Professional Engineers. Like the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners, the Texas Board of Professional Engineers was formed in 1937 after a natural gas explosion in the New London school in East Texas killed approximately 300 students and teachers. The 45th Texas Legislature noted that it was important to regulate engineering because of the “the vital impact … the practice of engineering is having upon the lives, property, economy, and security of our people.”
In order for the Texas Board of Professional Engineers to regulate engineering in the State of Texas, individuals wishing to engage in the profession of engineering for the public are required to be licensed. The licensing of engineers helps to ensure that only qualified individuals are practicing. In addition, they also register engineering firms and enforce the Engineering Practice Act. Today, in Texas there are more than 49,000 licensed engineers who provide engineering services on 27 engineering disciplines. Each year the Texas Board of Professional Engineers handles over 750 enforcement cases. In addition, they help to provide licensed engineers with a system of rules and regulations for the ethical and acceptable practice of professional engineering. They outline their mission statement on their website as follows, “the mission of the Texas Board of Professional Engineers is to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the people in Texas by ensuring that the practice of engineering in the state is carried out only by those persons who are proven to be qualified and by regulating the practice of Professional Engineering in Texas.”
The Texas Board of Professional Engineers is a nine member board that is appointed by the Governor of Texas. Six members of the nine member board must be an engineer and three must be public representatives. Each of the members serves a staggered six-year term with one-third of the board expiring in each odd number year. Day to day operations are overseen by the Executive Director and staff.
If you are interested in learning more about the Texas Board of Professional Engineers, you can go to their website at https://engineers.texas.gov/ . Some of the other agencies we will review in the upcoming weeks include the Board of Pardons and Paroles, Texas Ethics Commission, Texas Facilities Commission and a number of other agencies currently going through the sunset process.
