73R61 JJT-F
          By Hunter of Nueces                                    H.B. No. 892
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the release of a balloon; providing a criminal penalty.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 365, Health and Safety
    1-5  Code, is amended by adding Section 365.017 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 365.017.  RELEASE OF BALLOON; CRIMINAL PENALTY.  (a)  A
    1-7  person commits an offense if the person knowingly releases a
    1-8  balloon into the air outside a roofed structure.
    1-9        (b)  A person commits an offense if:
   1-10              (1)  the person organizes, sponsors, or promotes an
   1-11  event knowing that the release of a balloon into the air outside a
   1-12  roofed structure is an authorized part of the event; and
   1-13              (2)  at the event, a balloon is released into the air
   1-14  outside a roofed structure.
   1-15        (c)  It is a defense to prosecution under this section that:
   1-16              (1)  each balloon was released for a meteorological or
   1-17  scientific purpose and that the release was made or authorized by a
   1-18  federal, state, or local governmental entity; or
   1-19              (2)  each balloon released was inflated with heated air
   1-20  and designed for recovery after launching.
   1-21        (d)  An offense under this section is a Class C misdemeanor.
   1-22        (e)  In this section, "balloon" means a bag of rubber, latex,
   1-23  Mylar, or similar material inflated with lighter-than-air gas.
   1-24        (f)  This section does not affect the authority of a
    2-1  municipality to adopt or enforce an ordinance regarding the release
    2-2  of a balloon.
    2-3        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-8  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-9  passage, and it is so enacted.
   2-10                       COMMITTEE AMENDMENT NO. 1
   2-11        Amend H.B. 892 on page 1 between lines 20 and 21 by adding a
   2-12  new subdivision (3) to read as follows:
   2-13        (3)  Each balloon is constructed of bio-degradable or
   2-14  photo-degradable material.
   2-15                                                               Oakley