By:  Leedom                                            S.B. No. 528
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the use that a state officer or employee may make of a
    1-2  state credit card.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 14.02, State Purchasing and General
    1-5  Services Act (Article 601b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is
    1-6  amended by adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:
    1-7        (d)  A state officer or employee who is issued a card,
    1-8  commonly known as a credit card, under a contract between a credit
    1-9  card company and the state may use the card for any purpose that is
   1-10  reasonably related to the officer's or employee's expenses on state
   1-11  business, and that use of the card does not violate the laws of
   1-12  this state:
   1-13              (1)  if the contract between the credit card company
   1-14  and the state provides that the state is not liable for paying any
   1-15  charges incurred by the use of the card; and
   1-16              (2)  without regard to whether the charges incurred by
   1-17  the use of the card are reimbursable by the state.
   1-18        SECTION 2.  If conduct specifically permitted by Subsection
   1-19  (d), Section 14.02, State Purchasing and General Services Act
   1-20  (Article 601b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), as added by this
   1-21  Act, is conduct that would otherwise constitute an offense under a
   1-22  law of this state in existence immediately before the effective
   1-23  date of this Act, the offense based on that conduct may not be
   1-24  prosecuted on or after the effective date of this Act.  If on the
    2-1  effective date of this Act a criminal action is pending for the
    2-2  offense based on that conduct, the action is dismissed on that
    2-3  date.  However, a final conviction for an offense under the
    2-4  criminal laws of this state is unaffected by this Act if the final
    2-5  conviction exists on the effective date of this Act.
    2-6        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-7  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-8  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-9  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-10  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-11  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-12  passage, and it is so enacted.