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![handle is hein.sag/sagtx0224 and id is 1 raw text is: January 26, 2022
The Honorable Briscoe Cain
Chair, House Committee on Elections
Texas House of Representatives
Post Office Box 2910
Austin, Texas 78768-2910
Opinion No. KP-0398
Re: Application of chapter 556 of the Government Code to the Texas Windstorm Insurance
Association (RQ-0419-KP)
Dear Representative Cain:
You ask several questions involving the application of Government Code section 556.006
to the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA or the Association).1
Government Code chapter 556 governs political activities by certain public entities and
individuals. See TEX. Gov'T CODE §§ 556.001-.009. Subsection 556.006(a) provides: A state
agency may not use appropriated money to attempt to influence the passage or defeat of a
legislative measure. Id. § 556.006(a). State agency is defined for purposes of chapter 556 to
mean, in relevant part, a department, commission, board, office, or other agency in the executive
branch of state government, created under the constitution or a statute, with statewide authority[.]
Id. § 556.001(2)(A). You first ask whether TWIA is a state agency subject to section 556.006.
See Request Letter at 1.2
Attorney General Opinion JC-0161 considered the nature of the Texas Council for
Developmental Disabilities as a state agency subject to chapter 556.3 See Tex. Att'y Gen. Op. No.
JC-0161 (1999). The opinion looked at several factors in making its determination: It considered
the fact that the board members were appointed by the Governor; that the board members had to
'See Letter from Honorable Briscoe Cain, Chair, House Comm. on Elections, Tex. House of Representatives,
to Honorable Ken Paxton, Tex. Att'y Gen. at 1 (July 29, 2021), https://www2.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/
opinions/5lpaxton/rq/2021/pdf/RQ0419KP.pdf (Request Letter).
2An entity's status as a state agency has implications for numerous statutes outside chapter 556 of the
Government Code. See, e.g., Brown v. Univ. of Tex. Health Ctr., 957 S.W.2d 911, 914 (Tex. App.-Tyler 1997, no
pet.) (concluding that a university's status as a state agency bars breach of contract and tortious interference claims
under the doctrine of sovereign immunity).
3You and the Association both refer us to Attorney General Opinion JC-0161, which examined whether an
entity was subject to chapter 556. See Request Letter at 2-3; Brief from Michael Wilson, Perkins Law Group PLLC,
to Office of the Att'y Gen., Op. Comm., at 6, 8-9 (Aug. 31, 2021).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.sag/sagtx0224&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)