By:  Harris of Tarrant                                 S.B. No. 312
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to certain fire protection personnel regulated and
    1-2  assisted by the Texas Commission on Fire Protection.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 419.021, Government Code, is amended to
    1-5  read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 419.021.  DEFINITIONS.  In this subchapter:
    1-7              (1)  "Aircraft crash and rescue fire protection
    1-8  personnel" means permanent, fully paid, full-time local
    1-9  governmental employees who, as a permanent duty assignment, fight
   1-10  aircraft fires at airports, stand by for potential crash landings,
   1-11  and perform aircraft crash rescue.
   1-12              (2)  "Fire department" means a department of a local
   1-13  government with permanent, fully paid, full-time employees
   1-14  organized to prevent or suppress fires.
   1-15              (3)  "Fire protection personnel" means:
   1-16                    (A)  permanent, fully paid, full-time law
   1-17  enforcement officers designated as fire and arson investigators by
   1-18  an appropriate local authority;
   1-19                    (B)  aircraft crash and rescue fire protection
   1-20  personnel; or
   1-21                    (C)  permanent, fully paid, full-time fire
   1-22  department employees who are not secretaries, stenographers,
   1-23  clerks, budget analysts, or similar support staff persons or other
    2-1  administrative employees and who are assigned duties in one or more
    2-2  of the following categories:
    2-3                          (i)  fire suppression;
    2-4                          (ii)  fire inspection;
    2-5                          (iii)  fire and arson investigation;
    2-6                          (iv)  marine fire fighting;
    2-7                          (v)  aircraft crash fire fighting and
    2-8  rescue;
    2-9                          (vi)  fire training;
   2-10                          (vii)  fire education;
   2-11                          (viii)  fire administration; and
   2-12                          (ix)  any other position necessarily or
   2-13  customarily related to fire prevention and suppression.
   2-14              (4)  "Fully paid fire protection personnel" means
   2-15  personnel whose annual earnings, including benefits and expenses,
   2-16  are at least equal to the amount to be earned by working 1,300
   2-17  hours at minimum wage.
   2-18              (5)  "Local government" means a municipality, a county,
   2-19  a special-purpose district or authority, or any other political
   2-20  subdivision of the state.
   2-21              (6) <(5)>  "Marine fire protection personnel" means
   2-22  permanent, fully paid, full-time local governmental employees who
   2-23  work aboard a fireboat and fight fires that occur on or adjacent to
   2-24  a waterway, waterfront, channel, or turning basin.
   2-25              (7) <(6)>  "Protective clothing" means garments,
    3-1  including turnout coats, bunker coats, boots, gloves, trousers,
    3-2  helmets, and protective hoods, worn by fire protection personnel in
    3-3  the course of performing fire-fighting operations.
    3-4        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
    3-5        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-6  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-7  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-8  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-9  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.