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Committee advances bill moving military grant scoring to appointed commissioners
Summary
House Bill 25 64 would remove the requirement that Office of the Governor staff form a review panel for Defense Economic Adjustment Assistance grants and assign evaluation and scoring responsibility to the Texas Military Preparedness Commission commissioners, who are mostly retired military officers.
House Bill 25 64 would change who evaluates applications for the Defense Economic Adjustment Assistance Grant Program administered through the Texas Military Preparedness Commission by removing a staff panel from the Office of the Governor and placing scoring responsibility with the commission’s appointed members.
Sponsor testimony said the commission’s 13 appointed members — many retired military officers — have subject-matter expertise the governor’s staff may lack and that the change would streamline review and reduce demands on gubernatorial staff time.
Keith Graff, executive director (resource witness), told the Committee that securing 3–5 governor’s office staff to score each application can take four to nine staff-hours for a set of applications, and assigning the task to commissioners would allow agency staff to remain focused on office duties.
The sponsor described the commission’s mission: to preserve, protect, expand and attract military missions, assets and installations in Texas and to oversee the grant program. The proposed change removes the statutory requirement that the director establish a panel of Office of the Governor employees and instead has the appointed commissioners evaluate and score DIAG applications.
The committee voted to report the bill favorably to the full Senate by unanimous consent and recommended it for the local and uncontested calendar.
