LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS

The legislature finds that: (1) during times of storm, flood, fire, earthquake, hurricane, or other disaster or emergency, many Texas businesses bring in resources and personnel from other states on a temporary basis to expedite the often enormous and overwhelming tasks of cleaning up, restoring, and repairing damaged buildings, equipment, and property, and deploying and building new replacement facilities in the state; (2) accomplishing those tasks may necessitate out-of-state businesses, including out-of-state affiliates of Texas businesses, bringing into Texas resources, property, and personnel that previously had no connection to Texas to perform business activities in Texas, including repairing, renovating, installing, and building, for extended periods of time; (3) during those periods of time, out-of-state businesses and employees performing business activities in Texas on a temporary basis solely for the purpose of helping the state recover from a disaster or emergency should not be burdened by any requirements that the out-of-state businesses or employees pay taxes as a result of performing those activities; and (4) to ensure that out-of-state businesses may focus on quickly responding to the needs of Texas and its citizens during a disaster or emergency, it is appropriate for the legislature to provide that those businesses and their employees are not subject to certain state and local registration and licensing requirements and taxes for performing business activities before, during, and after the disaster or emergency to repair and restore devastating damage to critical property and infrastructure in the state.