The Attorney General of Texas 

July 5, 1982 

MARK WHITE 

Attorney General 

Supreme Court Building 

P. 0. Box 12546 

Austin, TX. 76711. 2546 

51214752501 

Telex 9101674-1367 

Telecopier 5121475.0266 

1607 Main St., Suite 1400 

Dallas. TX. 75201.4709 

2141742.6944 

4624 Alberta Ave., Suite 160 

El Paso, TX. 79905.2793 

9151533.3464 

1220 Dallas Ave.. Suite 202 

Houston, TX. 77002-6966 

7131650-0666 

606 Broadway. Suite 312 

Lubbock, TX. 79401.3479 

6061747-5236 

4309 N. Tenth, Suite S 

McAllen, TX. 76501-1685 

5121662.4547 

200 Main Plaza. Suite 400 

San Antonio, TX. 76205.2797 

5121225.4191 

An Equal Opportunity/ 

Affirmative Action Employer 

Mr. Evans N. Wents 

Executive Director 

Opinion No. ?w482 

State Commission for the Blind 

P. 0. Box 12866 

Austin, Texas 78711 

Dear Mr. Wents: 

Re: Authority of Commission 

for the Blind to guarantee 

loan repayments 

The Sixty-seventh Legislature enacted section 91.0301 of the 

Human Resources Code, which provides as follows: 

(a) The [C]ommission [for the Blind] may 

establish a program to make loans to finance the 

purchase of technological aids for visually 

handicapped persons. Interest on the loans may 

not exceed 10 percent a year. 

(b) The director may promulgate rules to 

administer the loan program. 

Acts 1981, 67th Leg., ch. 126, at 317. 

You state as follows: 

It has been suggested that the commission 

would be more prudent and achieve better results 

by arranging the specific loans through existing 

bank channels and acting as guarantor for the 

loans, it being understood that the exposure of 

the commission would be limited to the specific 

portion of its endowment funds restricted to such 

use. 

This suggestion has merit in that it does not 

involve the commission in the direct management of 

a loan fund, and it works to establish the credit 

record or history of the borrowers in the 

commercial market. 

p. 1701 
.i . 

Mr. Evans N. Wentz - Page 2 (kg+482) 

You ask: 

Does the commission need specific legislative 

authority to enter into a program calling for it 

to guarantee loan repayments, using a portion of 

its endowments as collateral? 

Administrative agencies have only those powers expressly granted by 

statute or necessarily implied therein. Stauffer v. City of San 

Antonio, 344 S.W.2d 158 (Tex. 1961); State v. Jackson, 376 S.W.2d 341 

(Tex. 1964). If applicable statutes do not grant an agency the power 

to do a particular thing, then the agency has no such power. Nueces 

County Water Control and Improvement District No. 3 v. Texas Water 

Rights Commission, 481 S.W.2d 924 (Tex. Civ. App. - Austin 1972, writ 

ref'd n.r.e.); Martinez v. Texas Employment Commission, 570 S.W.Zd 28 

(Tex. Civ. App. - Corpus Christ1 1978, no writ). 

Section 91.0301 clearly does not expressly authorize the loan 

program you describe. The remaining question is whether it impliedly 

authorizes such a program. We answer in the negative. In our 

opinion, the power to establish a loan program through bank channels, 

with the cosuaission acting as guarantor on the loans and using a 

portion of its endowments as collateral, simply cannot be said to be 

reasonably implied in a statute which merely authorizes the commission 

to establish and operate a loan program itself. If nothing else, the 

fact that the loan program would be administered by banks, rather than 

by the commission, is, in our opinion, sufficient to enable us to 

conclude that the proposed program is too different from the program 

contemplated by section 91.0301 to be permissible under that section. 

The proposed loan program may be one which the legislature would 

authorize if it considered the matter. We must take statutes as we 

find them. however. and we cannot read into them more than their words 

will clearly sanction and fairly sustain. Texas Highway Commission v. 

El Paso Building and Construction Trades Council, 234 S.W.2d 857 (Tex. 

1950); Railroad Conrmission of Texas v. Miller, 434 S.W.Zd 670 (Tex. 

1968). We therefore conclude that express or implied authority for 

the loan program you describe is necessary (assuming, of course: that 

such authority is provided in accordance with the requirements of the 

Texas Constitution), and that section 91.0301 of the Human Resources 

Code does not furnish such authority. You do not ask and we do not 

address any question relating to the constitutionality of section 

91.0301. 

SUMMARY 

Section 91.0301 of the Human Resources Code 

does not authorize the Commission for the Blind to 

p. 1702 
Mr. Evans N. Wents - Page 3 (MW-482) 

establish, through existing bank channels, a 

program to make loans to finance the purchase of 

technological aids to visually handicapped 

persons, with the commission acting as guarantor 

on the loans and using a portion of its endowments 

as collateral. 

MARK WHITE 

Attorney General of Texas 

JOHN W. FAINTER, JR. 

First Assistant Attorney General 

RICHARD E. GRAY III 

Executive Assistant Attorney General 

Prepared by Jon Bible 

Assistant Attorney General 

APPROVED: 

OPINION COMMITTEE 

Susan L. Garrison, Chairman 

Jon Bible 

Patricia Hinojosa 

Jim Moellinger 

Bruce Youngblood 

p. 1703