The Texas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board adopts on an emergency basis amendments to §157.15 and §157.18 and new rules §157.16, Exceptions and Replies and §157.17, Final Decisions and Orders. These new rules and amendments become effective on September 1, 2007 because that is the effective date of the legislative changes made by SB 914. The new rules and amendments are being made so that the board's rules relating to the contested case hearing process will conform to the recent legislative changes made in contested case hearing procedure and process under SB 914 which amended Texas Occupations Code Chapter 1103. The thrust of those legislative amendments was to require contested case hearings to be held before the State Office of Administrative Hearings instead of following the prior practice of utilizing an in-house administrative law judge. Thus, the new rules and amendments incorporate the legislatively mandated changes. The new rules and amendments will also be proposed simultaneously in this issue of the Texas Register.

The new rules and amendments are adopted on an emergency basis under the Texas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Act, Subchapter D, Board Powers and Duties (Occupations Code, Chapter 1103), which provides the board with authority to adopt rules under §1103.151, Rules Relating to Certification and Licenses, §1103.154, Rules Relating to Professional Conduct a and §1103.508, Subchapter K, Contested Hearings.

No other code, article, or statute is affected by this emergency adoption.