State Water Implementation Fund for Texas Advisory Committee

Final Results of Last Sunset Review

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• Amend the Texas Water Development Board’s (TWDB) next Sunset review date and continue the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas Advisory Committee to 2035.

Project Review

• Require TWDB to develop, collect, and analyze performance metrics and establish goals for evaluating its project review process.
• Authorize TWDB to implement a risk-based approach to project review.
• Direct TWDB to develop a plan to prioritize improving its project review process to eliminate inefficiencies and inconsistencies. (Management action — nonstatutory)
• Direct TWDB to work with the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) to update the agency’s General Appropriations Act performance measures to include elements of the project review process. (Management action — nonstatutory)

Outreach

• Direct TWDB to collect and analyze information about its financial assistance applicants and outreach efforts to better inform and more effectively target agency activities; as part of this, direct TWDB to work with LBB to report money and projects awarded to rural and economically disadvantaged communities separately and not as a combined number. (Management action — nonstatutory)
• Direct TWDB to develop a coordinated outreach plan to more efficiently promote agency programs, improve operations, and ensure its outreach efforts meet entities’ needs and expectations; additionally, direct TWDB to use funds from the Rural Water Assistance Fund to work with rural communities to help navigate TWDB’s funding application process. (Management action — nonstatutory)

Water Planning

• Require regional water planning groups to include in regional water plans implementation updates about large projects, including status updates about expenditures, permit applications, and construction.
• Authorize regional water planning groups, by statute, to use a drought worse than the drought of record as the baseline for planning purposes.
• Direct TWDB to consult with the Office of the State Climatologist at Texas A&M University in the preparation of regional and state water plans. (Management action — nonstatutory)

Governance

• Update the standard across-the-board requirement related to board member training.
• Abolish TWDB’s reports on the Water Loan Assistance Program, Water Bond Insurance Program, and Storage Acquisition Fund, and continue all other reporting requirements.
• Direct TWDB to update its policy regarding the separation of duties of board members from those of staff. (Management action — nonstatutory)
• Direct TWDB to adopt a rule review plan. (Management action — nonstatutory)