Presenter: Ann Bright

Commission Agenda Item No. 11
Action
Amendments to 31 Texas Administrative Code, Section 51.3
Responding to Petitions for Rulemaking
August 2003

I. Discussion: Under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), an individual may petition a state agency to initiate a rulemaking. If a state agency denies a petition for rulemaking, it must notify the petitioner on or before the 60th day after a state agency received the petition for rulemaking. Under TPWD’s current rule, TPWD staff provides a recommendation and the Executive Director notifies each commissioner of the petition for rulemaking and staff’s recommendation. If any commissioner asks that the petition be deliberated, deliberation of the petition will be placed on the next commission agenda. If no commissioner seeks to deliberate on the matter, the petition for rulemaking will be considered denied. To ensure that TPWD notifies the petitioner by the 60th day after TPWD receives the petition for rulemaking, this amendment will shorten the deadline for a commissioner to ask that the item be placed on a Commission agenda.

II. Recommendation: Staff recommends that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission adopt the following motion:

“The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission adopts the amendments to 31 TAC §51.3 concerning the procedures for responding to petitions for rulemaking, as published in the July 4, 2003, issue of the Texas Register (28 Tex.Reg. 5123-5124).”