By:  Leedom                                            S.B. No. 528
       73R2937 JRD-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the use that a state officer or employee may make of a
    1-3  state credit card.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 14.02, State Purchasing and General
    1-6  Services Act (Article 601b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is
    1-7  amended by adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:
    1-8        (d)  A state officer or employee who is issued a card,
    1-9  commonly known as a credit card, under a contract between a credit
   1-10  card company and the state may use the card for any purpose that is
   1-11  reasonably related to the officer's or employee's authorized travel
   1-12  on state business, and that use of the card does not violate the
   1-13  laws of this state:
   1-14              (1)  if the contract between the credit card company
   1-15  and the state provides that the state is not liable for paying any
   1-16  charges incurred by the use of the card; and
   1-17              (2)  without regard to whether the charges incurred by
   1-18  the use of the card are reimbursable by the state.
   1-19        SECTION 2.  If conduct specifically permitted by Section
   1-20  14.02(d), State Purchasing and General Services Act (Article 601b,
   1-21  Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), as added by this Act, is conduct
   1-22  that would otherwise constitute an offense under a law of this
   1-23  state in existence immediately before the effective date of this
   1-24  Act, the offense based on that conduct may not be prosecuted on or
    2-1  after the effective date of this Act.  If on the effective date of
    2-2  this Act a criminal action is pending for the offense based on that
    2-3  conduct, the action is dismissed on that date.  However, a final
    2-4  conviction for an offense under the criminal laws of this state is
    2-5  unaffected by this Act if the final conviction exists on the
    2-6  effective date of this Act.
    2-7        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-8  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-9  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-10  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-11  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-12  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-13  passage, and it is so enacted.