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.