Engineering Related
Transportation
HB 84 by Branch/Carona - Relating to issuance and renewal of a driver's license of an elderly person. This bill will require elderly drivers (those over the age of 85) to pass a vision test and field driving test every two years. At the request of authors of the legislation, the Texas Transportation Institute provided background information on crash involvement of drivers by age group.
HB 160 by Menendez/Wentworth - Relating to a study on the relocation of freight trains away from residential areas of the state. This bill requires the Texas Department of Transportation to conduct a study to determine the economic feasibility of relocating freight trains that carry hazardous materials away from residential areas in municipalities with populations of more than 1.2 million and report the results of the study to the Governor and the Legislature no later than March 1, 2008.
HB 310 by Goolsby/Carona-Relating to the transfer of registration and license plates between vehicles with the same owner. This bill will allow persons selling a vehicle to remove the plates and registration sticker and allow the seller to either destroy them or transfer them to another vehicle owned by the seller, placing greater pressure on the buyer to properly follow TxDOT’s transfer requirements so the vehicle ownership is properly documented.
HB 323 by Hamilton/Lucio - Relating to seat belts on buses that transport schoolchildren. This bill requires all school buses purchased by school districts purchased after September 1, 2010 to be equipped with seatbelts for each passenger and all school-chartered buses contracted for use by a district on or after September 1, 2011 to be equipped with seatbelts.
HB 423 by Corte/Carona - Relating to requiring that medical examiners and justices of the peace report certain deaths that result from a motor vehicle accident to the Texas Department of Public Safety. This bill will change the procedures for a coroner, medical examiner or justice of the peace to report information related to alcohol-involved fatal crashes, and holds the potential for substantially improving data collection and analysis in support of research related to impaired driving conducted by the Texas Transportation Institute. The Texas Transportation Institute provided testimony on the bill at that request of the authors.
HB 570 by Leibowitz/Carona - Relating to the use of motor vehicle registration or license plate information collected by a toll project entity. This bill stipulates that information taken from license plate photographs either manually or through automated enforcement technology can be used only for toll collection and law enforcement purposes.
HB 922 by Truitt/Carona - Relating to the power of a municipality to enforce compliance with speed limits by an automated traffic control system. This bill prohibits a municipality from implementing or operating an automated traffic control system to enforce speed limits on a highway or street under its jurisdiction.
HB 1052 by Callegari/Carona - Relating to requiring warning signs before intersections at which a municipality uses a photographic traffic monitoring system to enforce compliance with a traffic-control signal. This bill requires a municipality that uses a photographic traffic monitoring system to post signs that would notify drivers that they are approaching an intersection that is monitored by a photographic system.
SB 766 by Ogden/Gattis - Relating to the transfer of powers and duties for accident reports from the Department of Public Safety to the Texas Department of Transportation. This bill transfers the powers and duties related to the collection, tabulation, and analysis of vehicle accidents from the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT).
SB 792 by Williams/W. Smith - Relating to the power of counties and certain other public entities with respect to certain transportation projects. Statewide transportation legislation that will, among other things: (1) ensure that local toll authorities have the first option to build new toll projects and may use state rights of way as needed; (2) require local toll authorities and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to agree to certain business terms when a project is first proposed and to perform a Market Valuation Study based on those terms to determine a road’s total value; (3) allow local toll authorities to propose that needed state roads be built as toll roads; (4) modify comprehensive development agreements (CDAs) by limiting CDAs to 50 years, mandating that the state’s future buyback cost be stipulated in the CDA, clarifying that competing tax roads cannot be built within four miles on either side of a CDA toll road; and requiring CDA revenue be used only for other projects in the region in which it is generated; (5) place a two year moratorium on some CDAs, and (6) allow TxDOT to issue $3 billion in bonds to borrow against future gas tax revenue.
SB 1119 by Carona/Murphy - Relating to the authority of a local authority to implement a photographic traffic signal enforcement system; providing for the imposition of civil penalties. This bill would authorize a local governmental entity to by ordinance implement a photographic traffic signal enforcement system and provide that the owner of a motor vehicle is liable to the local government for a civil penalty if the vehicle is operated in violation of the instructions of that signal. If a contract is entered into for the administration and enforcement of such a system, a local authority would be prohibited from agreeing to pay the contractor a specified percentage of, or dollar amount from, each civil penalty collected.
Energy
HB 66 by Leibowitz/Watson - Relating to power management software for state agencies.
The bill requires the Department of Information Resources (DIR) to research and select available power management software and that the software be used by state agencies to reduce the amount of energy required to operate state computer networks and networked personal computers. An institution of higher education is required to purchase, lease, or otherwise acquire and use power management software only if the DIR, in consultation with the Information Technology Council for Higher Education, determines that the use of power management software would provide cost savings to the state.
HB 3070 by Strama/Watson - Relating to a study of methods for increasing the availability of certain information on energy efficiency of certain residential property. This legislation requires the State Energy Conservation Office to conduct a study of methods for increasing the availability of certain information on the energy efficiency of certain residential property, to establish an advisory committee, and to establish standards for rating the energy efficiency of new and existing residential property. The Energy Systems Laboratory of the Texas Engineering Experiment Station provided technical assistance to the authors on this legislation at their request and provided testimony on the bill.
SB 831 by Ellis/Straus - Relating to energy savings performance contracts. This bill extends the financing term on energy savings performance contracts from 15 years to 20 years.
Homeland Security
HB 823 by Ritter/Williams - Relating to the liability of certain licensed or registered professionals for damages arising from certain services provided during an emergency. The bill provides that licensed architects and engineers are not civilly liable due to a fault in the performance of services during a government-declared disaster unless the fault results from gross negligence or willful, wanton, or intentional misconduct.
Other
HB 899 by W. Smith/Deuell - Relating to the operation and functions of the Texas Board of Professional Engineers and the regulation of the practice of engineering. This bill amends the Engineering Practice Act in several ways, including to remove conflicting statutory language, add a member to the board, reduce the professional fee for license holders over 65 years of age, and clarify when an engineer must use a seal.
HB 1188 by Morrison/Shapiro - Relating to the Texas emerging technology fund. This bill permits appropriated amounts from the Emerging Technology Fund be used for staff and administration of Emerging Technology Fund activities, not to exceed $600,000 per year.
The bill changes from 25 percent to 16.67 percent the amount from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund to be used to match funding from research sponsors, and changes from 25 percent to 33.33 percent the amount from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund to be used to acquire new or enhance existing research superiority at public institutions of higher education. The bill provides that no more than 2.0 percent of the amount allocated for incentives for commercialization activities may be invested directly in a regional center of innovation and commercialization. In addition, the bill permits the Office of the Governor to use the Emerging Technology Fund to make loans and charge interest and to take an equity position in the form of stock or other security when considering granting an award from the fund and sell or trade a security for the benefit of the fund.
SB 99 by Zaffirini/Guillen - Relating to the identification of and provision of assistance to colonias and for tracking the progress of certain state-funded projects that benefit colonias. The bill would require the Secretary of State to compile information received from various state agencies and institutions of higher education that receive funding from the state for projects that provide assistance to colonias and to maintain the classification system used to track state-funded projects related to water/wastewater services or paved roads, and other assistance to colonias.