H.B. No. 984
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the authority of certain state agencies to purchase
    1-3  liability insurance.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 1, Chapter 797, Acts of the 61st
    1-6  Legislature, Regular Session, 1969 (Article 6252-19a, Vernon's
    1-7  Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 1.  (a)  The State Departments or Agencies who own and
    1-9  operate motor vehicles, aircraft and motorboats or watercraft of
   1-10  all types and sizes shall have the authority to insure their
   1-11  officers and employees from liability arising out of the use,
   1-12  operation and maintenance of such automobiles, trucks, tractors,
   1-13  power equipment, aircraft and motorboats or watercraft used or
   1-14  which may be used in the operation of such Department or Agency.
   1-15  Such insurance shall be provided by the purchase of a policy or
   1-16  policies for that purpose from some liability insurance company or
   1-17  companies authorized to transact business in the State of Texas.
   1-18  All liability insurance so purchased shall be provided on a policy
   1-19  form or forms approved by the State Board of Insurance as to form
   1-20  and by the Attorney General as to liability.
   1-21        (b)  The State Departments and Agencies who receive federal
   1-22  grant funds for a foster grandparent program shall also have the
   1-23  authority to expend those funds to insure the person and property
   1-24  of those foster grandparents as required by the grant.
    2-1        (c)  The State Departments and Agencies that operate
    2-2  integrated day-care programs that serve children with mental
    2-3  illness, children with developmental disabilities, or children who
    2-4  participate in early childhood intervention programs, as well as
    2-5  other children, may purchase insurance to cover liability arising
    2-6  from the operation of the integrated day-care program.
    2-7        (d)  The State Departments and Agencies that operate
    2-8  habilitative and rehabilitative work programs for persons who are
    2-9  mentally ill or developmentally disabled may purchase insurance
   2-10  from the proceeds of those programs to cover liability arising out
   2-11  of the operation of those programs if the contractor will not
   2-12  accept as sufficient the state's indemnification provisions.
   2-13        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-14  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-15  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-16  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-17  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-18  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-19  passage, and it is so enacted.