By:  Combs                                            H.B. No. 1193
       73R5087 DLF-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to appropriations for payment of certain claims by state
    1-3  agencies.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 316, Government Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Section 316.023 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 316.023.  APPROPRIATION FOR CERTAIN CLAIMS.  (a)  The
    1-8  legislature may not make an appropriation to pay a claim for
    1-9  personal injury, death, or property damage caused by the conduct of
   1-10  a state agency unless that appropriation is deducted from the
   1-11  appropriation made for that state agency in the General
   1-12  Appropriations Act.
   1-13        (b)  The legislature may not make an appropriation to
   1-14  indemnify an employee, member of a governing board, or other
   1-15  officer of a state agency under Chapter 104, Civil Practice and
   1-16  Remedies Code, unless that appropriation is deducted from the
   1-17  appropriation made for that state agency in the General
   1-18  Appropriations Act.
   1-19        (c)  This section does not apply to an appropriation to pay
   1-20  or indemnify a person for a negligent act or omission in the
   1-21  diagnosis, care, or treatment of a health care or mental health
   1-22  care patient, without regard to whether the claim is based on tort
   1-23  or contract principles.
   1-24        (d)  In this section, "state agency" means:
    2-1              (1)  an agency, board, bureau, commission, council,
    2-2  department, or office that was created by the constitution or a
    2-3  statute of this state and that has statewide jurisdiction; or
    2-4              (2)  a court or institution of higher education of this
    2-5  state.
    2-6        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1994, and
    2-7  applies only to an appropriation made on or after that date.
    2-8        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-9  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-10  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-11  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-12  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.