S.B. No. 281
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to exempting certain facilities from licensure under the
    1-2  Personal Care Facility Licensing Act.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 247.004, Health and Safety Code, is
    1-5  amended to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 247.004.  EXEMPTIONS <EXEMPTION>.  This chapter does not
    1-7  apply to:
    1-8              (1)  a boarding facility that has rooms for rent and
    1-9  that may offer community meals but that does not provide personal
   1-10  care services;
   1-11              (2)  an establishment conducted by or for the adherents
   1-12  of the Church of Christ, Scientist, for the purpose of providing
   1-13  facilities for the care or treatment of the sick who depend
   1-14  exclusively on prayer or spiritual means for healing without the
   1-15  use of any drug or material remedy if the establishment complies
   1-16  with local safety, sanitary, and quarantine ordinances and
   1-17  regulations; or
   1-18              (3)  a facility conducted by or for the adherents of a
   1-19  qualified religious society classified as a tax-exempt organization
   1-20  under an Internal Revenue Service group exemption ruling for the
   1-21  purpose of providing personal care services without charge solely
   1-22  for the society's professed members or ministers in retirement, if
   1-23  the facility complies with local safety, sanitation, and quarantine
   1-24  ordinances and regulations.
    2-1        SECTION 2.  Section 247.002, Health and Safety Code, is
    2-2  amended by adding Subdivision (5) to read as follows:
    2-3              (5)  "Qualified religious society" means a church,
    2-4  synagogue, or other organization or association that is organized
    2-5  primarily for religious purposes and that:
    2-6                    (A)  has been in existence in this state for at
    2-7  least 35 years; and
    2-8                    (B)  does not distribute any of its income to its
    2-9  members, officers, or governing body other than as reasonable
   2-10  compensation for services or reimbursement of expenses.
   2-11        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-12  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-13  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-14  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-15  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-16  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-17  passage, and it is so enacted.