By:  Gallego                                          H.B. No. 1561
       73R5343 JRD-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to authorizing the Texas Commission on Fire Protection to
    1-3  set and collect a fee for furnishing laboratory services in an
    1-4  arson investigation.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Subchapter Z, Chapter 419, Government Code, is
    1-7  amended by adding Section 419.907 to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 419.907.  FEE FOR LABORATORY SERVICES.  (a)  The
    1-9  commission may set and collect a fee from a person who requests the
   1-10  commission to furnish laboratory services in connection with an
   1-11  investigation of arson or suspected arson.
   1-12        (b)  The fee must be set in an amount designed to recover the
   1-13  commission's costs in furnishing the services, except that the
   1-14  commission shall consult with the Department of Public Safety and:
   1-15              (1)  the amount of the fee may not exceed the amount
   1-16  charged by the department for furnishing substantially similar
   1-17  services; and
   1-18              (2)  the commission must waive the fee for a
   1-19  governmental entity for which the department waives the fee when
   1-20  the department furnishes substantially similar services for the
   1-21  entity.
   1-22        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-23  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-24  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-1  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-2  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-3  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-4  passage, and it is so enacted.