STUDY BILLS AND MORE
Over the past month or so I have been telling you about the new bills which have been signed into law. As a reminder the office of the Governor determined the final outcome of certain bills which had managed to pass out of both the Texas House of Representatives and the Texas Senate during the Regular Session of the 83rd Texas Legislature. During the twenty days following the end of a regular session, the Governor of Texas has the ability to sign bills into law, pass them into law without a signature or to veto them. It is during these twenty days that members of the Texas House and Texas Senate find out if the bills they worked on during the session will become law or not.
The 83rd Texas Legislature succeeded in sending a little over fourteen hundred bills to the Governor. In addition to these bills House Concurrent Resolutions (HCR) and Senate Concurrent Resolutions (SCR) were also sent to the Governor for signature. Concurrent resolutions are important because they allow for the state to officially recognize people, places, and things throughout the State of Texas, make official statements for the state, as well as outline specific ideas and concepts to be studied by the Texas Legislature in between sessions. Here are some of those Concurrent resolutions which were signed by the Governor:
• HCR 2 – Congratulating Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M University on winning the 2012 Heisman Trophy.
• HCR 24 – Designating Nacogdoches as the official Garden Capital of Texas.
• HCR 40 – Designating the first Saturday in May as Texas Academic College Scholarship Day for a 10-year period beginning in 2014.
• HCR 56 – Requesting the Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to provide for a joint interim legislative study regarding the development and potential economic impact of a cruise industry on the Texas coast between Calhoun and Cameron Counties.
• HCR 57 – Requesting the Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to create a joint interim committee to study human trafficking in Texas.
• HCR 59 – Requesting the Speaker and Lieutenant Governor to create a joint interim committee to study seawater desalination on the Texas coast.
• HCR 67 – Recognizing March 2013 as Child Nutrition Month.
• HCR 68 – Designating the first full week of May as Texas Teacher Appreciation Week for a 10-year period beginning in 2013.
• SCR 1 – Designating April as Water Safety Month for a 10-year period beginning in 2013.
• SCR 17 – Urging Congress to restore the presumption of a service connection for Agent Orange exposure to United States Navy and United States Air Force veterans who served on the inland waterways, in the territorial waters, and in the airspace of the Republic of Vietnam and to institute a presumption of connection to employment for civilians exposed to Agent Orange in their workplaces.
• SCR 26 – Designating November as COPD Awareness Month for a 10-year period beginning in 2013, and directing the Texas Department of State Health Services to include COPD as a chronic health condition in their public awareness and educational efforts.
I was proud and honored to be the author of HCRs 56, 57 and 59. These studies are important to not only South Texas but to the State of Texas as a whole.
I invite you to examine the complete list outlining the bills and resolutions signed, passed in to law without signature or vetoed by going to Office of the Governor Rick Perry.
If you have questions regarding any of the information mentioned in this article, please do not hesitate to call my Capitol or District Office. As always, my offices are available at any time to assist with questions, concerns or comments (Capitol Office, 512-463-0672; District Office, 361-949-4603).
– State Representative Todd Hunter, District 32
Rep. Hunter represents Nueces (Part). He can be contacted at todd.hunter@house.state.tx.us or at 512-463-0672.
