By Brimer                                              H.B. No. 395
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to regulating certain slaughterers; providing penalties.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 148.001, Agriculture Code, is amended to
    1-5  read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 148.001.  DEFINITION.  In this chapter, "slaughterer"
    1-7  means a person engaged in the business of:
    1-8              (1)  slaughtering livestock for profit; or
    1-9              (2)  selling livestock, as a primary business, to be
   1-10  slaughtered by the purchaser on premises owned or operated by the
   1-11  seller, in a county with a population of one million or more.
   1-12        SECTION 2.  Section 433.024, Health and Safety Code, is
   1-13  amended to read as follows:
   1-14        Sec. 433.024.  Inspection of Processing and Slaughtering
   1-15  Establishments.  (a)  The commissioner, through sanitation experts
   1-16  and other competent inspectors, shall inspect each processing
   1-17  establishment in which livestock is slaughtered and meat and meat
   1-18  food products of the livestock are prepared solely for intrastate
   1-19  commerce as necessary to obtain information about the
   1-20  establishment's sanitary conditions.
   1-21        (b)  The commissioner, through sanitation experts and other
   1-22  competent inspectors, shall inspect each slaughtering establishment
   1-23  whose primary business is the selling of livestock to be
   1-24  slaughtered by the purchaser on premises owned or operated by the
    2-1  seller.  This subsection does not nullify the provisions in Section
    2-2  433.006 of the Health and Safety Code relating to personal use
    2-3  exemption.
    2-4        (c) <(b)>  The commissioner shall adopt rules governing
    2-5  sanitation maintenance in <a> processing and slaughtering
    2-6  establishments as defined by this section <establishment>.
    2-7        (d) <(c)>  If sanitary conditions of a processing
    2-8  establishment render meat or meat food products adulterated, the
    2-9  commissioner shall prohibit the meat or meat food products from
   2-10  being labeled, marked, stamped, or tagged as "Texas inspected and
   2-11  passed."
   2-12        SECTION 3.  An offense committed before the effective date of
   2-13  this Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was
   2-14  committed, and the former law is continued in effect for that
   2-15  purpose.
   2-16        SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   2-17        SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-18  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-19  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-20  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-21  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.