The Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation submits the following agency rule review plan in accordance with House Bill 1, 75^th Legislature, Regular Session 1997, Article IX, Section 167.

The Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation has determined that it will not readopt existing rules, but that it will undertake substantive sunset review of its rules, which are being reorganized and rewritten to correspond more closely to existing organizational and operational changes. To accomplish this, it will be necessary to repeal all of its rules that were in effect prior to September 1, 1997. New rules will be adopted as necessary following the usual Texas Register proposal and adoption process, which provides for public comment.

This plan is intended to inform the public of the general timelines that the department intends to follow in repealing rules. In many cases, provisions in the rules to be repealed respond to statutory mandates or other responsibilities that will continue to be required to be expressed in rules. The new rules that are developed will be subject to the regular TDMHMR rulemaking process, which includes Administrative Procedure Act requirements of proposal by publication in the Texas Register of the full text of rules for public scrutiny. The TDMHMR process also involves stakeholders in the development of pre-proposal draft rules which are distributed for public comment prior to proposal in the Texas Register. The approach, which is more resource intensive that the readoption process, is expected to yield a fully reorganized and more highly responsive rule base by September 1, 2001.

For further information about this plan, please contact Linda Logan, director, Office of Policy Development, Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, PO Box 12668, Austin, Texas 78711-2668; facsimile 512/206-4750.