By:  Raymond                                          H.B. No. 2174
       73R5541 MWV-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to qualifications of presiding judges of administrative
    1-3  judicial regions.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 74.045, Government Code, is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 74.045.  Qualifications of Presiding Judge.  (a)  A
    1-8  presiding judge must be <at the time of appointment>:
    1-9              (1)  a regularly elected or retired district judge;
   1-10              (2)  a former judge with at least 12 years of service
   1-11  as a district judge; or
   1-12              (3)  an active or <a> retired court of appeals
   1-13  <appellate> judge with judicial experience on a district court.
   1-14        (b)  If the judge is a retired or former district judge, he
   1-15  must have voluntarily retired from or left office, must reside
   1-16  within the administrative region at the time of appointment and
   1-17  while serving as presiding judge, and must have certified his
   1-18  willingness to serve.
   1-19        (c)  If the judge is a retired court of appeals judge with
   1-20  judicial experience on a district court, he must have voluntarily
   1-21  retired from office, must reside within the administrative region
   1-22  at the time of appointment and while serving as presiding judge,
   1-23  and must have certified his willingness to serve.
   1-24        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
    2-1        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-2  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-3  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-4  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-5  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.