By:  Moncrief                                           S.B. No. 28
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to procedural and fire safety requirements relating to
    1-2  long-term care facilities licensed by the Texas Department of
    1-3  Health.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 242.039, Health and Safety Code, is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 242.039.  FIRE SAFETY REQUIREMENTS.  The board shall
    1-8  adopt rules necessary to specify the edition of the Life Safety
    1-9  Code of the National Fire Protection Association applicable to all
   1-10  institutions licensed under this chapter.  The board shall utilize
   1-11  pertinent federal law and regulations, state law and rules, and
   1-12  standards of fire safety from the National Fire Protection
   1-13  Association in establishing these rules.  The rules may not prevent
   1-14  an institution licensed under this chapter from voluntarily
   1-15  conforming to fire safety standards that are higher than those
   1-16  adopted by the board or from voluntarily conforming to additional
   1-17  fire safety standards that are compatible with, equal to, or more
   1-18  stringent than those adopted by the board.  <(a)  An institution
   1-19  licensed under this chapter shall comply with the 1985 edition of
   1-20  the Code for Safety to Life from Fire in Buildings and Structures,
   1-21  known as the Life Safety Code (Pamphlet No. 101) of the National
   1-22  Fire Protection Association.  The department shall determine which
   1-23  occupancy chapter of that code is applicable to an institution
    2-1  other than a nursing home or custodial care home.>
    2-2        <(b)  A nursing home  or custodial care home or a portion of
    2-3  a home that was operating or approved for construction before
    2-4  September 1, 1987, must comply with the Life Safety Code provisions
    2-5  relating to existing construction.>
    2-6        <(c)  A nursing home or custodial care home or a portion of a
    2-7  home that is operating or approved for construction on or after
    2-8  September 1, 1987, must comply with the Life Safety Code provisions
    2-9  relating to new construction.>
   2-10        <(d)  This section does not preclude an institution from
   2-11  conforming to a higher or additional fire safety standard or
   2-12  provision.>
   2-13        SECTION 2.  Section 242.094, Health and Safety Code, is
   2-14  amended by adding Subsection (e) to read as follows:
   2-15        (e)  Venue for actions brought under this section shall be in
   2-16  Travis County.
   2-17        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   2-18        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-19  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-20  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-21  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-22  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.