By: Willis H.B. No. 174
73R430 JJT-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to a prohibition on the closure or consolidation of a
1-3 state school without legislative authorization.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 533.083, Health and Safety Code, is
1-6 amended to read as follows:
1-7 Sec. 533.083. <CRITERIA FOR> EXPANSION, CLOSURE, OR
1-8 CONSOLIDATION OF FACILITY. (a) The department shall establish
1-9 objective criteria for determining when a new facility may be
1-10 needed and when a facility may be expanded, closed, or
1-11 consolidated.
1-12 (b) The department may not close or consolidate a state
1-13 school unless the closure or consolidation is expressly authorized
1-14 by an Act of the 73rd Legislature or a subsequent legislature.
1-15 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
1-16 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-17 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-18 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-19 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-20 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-21 passage, and it is so enacted.