The Texas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board adopts amendments to §157.11, concerning Contested Cases; Entry of Appearance; Continuance, without changes to the proposed text as published in the August 31, 2007, issue of the Texas Register (32 TexReg 5627) and it will not be republished.

The amendments to §157.11 are adopted to add language 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 Senate Bill 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 amendments incorporate the legislatively mandated changes. An additional amendment to §157.11 replaces an outdated statutory reference with the correct statutory reference.

No written comments were received regarding adoption of the amendments.

The amendments are adopted under the Texas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Act, Subchapter D, Board Powers and Duties (Texas 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 and Subchapter K, §1103.508, Contested Hearings.