SECTION 253.1. Petitions for Rulemaking before the Commission

(a) Petition for Rulemaking. Any interested person may petition the commission requesting the adoption of a new rule or the amendment of an existing rule.

(1) The petition shall be in writing and shall include a brief explanation of the rule, the reason(s) the new or amended rule should be adopted, the statutory authority for such a rule or amendment, and complete proposed text for the rule. The proposed text for the rule shall indicate by striking through the words, if any, to be deleted from the current rule and by underlining the words, if any, to be added to the current rule.

(2) Upon receipt of a petition for rulemaking by the agency, the executive director of the commission or his or her designee shall submit a notice for publication in the miscellaneous documents section of the Texas Register. The notice shall include a summary of the petition, the name of the individual, organization or entity that submitted the petition, and notification that a copy of the petition will be available for review and copying at the commission's offices. Comments on the petition shall be due three weeks from the date of publication of the notice. Failure to publish a notice of a petition for rulemaking in the Texas Register shall not invalidate any commission action on the petition for rulemaking.

(3) Within 60 days after submission of a petition, the commission either shall deny the petition in writing, stating its reasons for the denial, or shall initiate rulemaking proceedings. If the commission does not consider and address the petition in an open meeting during the 60 days, the executive director of the commission shall initiate rulemaking proceedings.

(b) Commission Initiated Rulemaking. The commission may initiate rulemaking proceedings on its own motion or on the motion of the executive director of the commission. Nothing in this section shall preclude the executive director of the commission or his or her designee from consideration or development of new rules or amendments to existing rules without express direction from the commission.

Source Note: The provisions of this §253.1 adopted to be effective July 6, 2003, 28 TexReg 4886