By:  Henderson                                         S.B. No. 777
       73R3575 RJA-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to statutory construction.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 311, Government Code, is
    1-5  amended by adding Section 311.006 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 311.006.  INTERNAL REFERENCES.  In a code:
    1-7              (1)  a reference to a title, chapter, or section
    1-8  without further identification is a reference to a title, chapter,
    1-9  or section of the code; and
   1-10              (2)  a reference to a subtitle, subchapter, subsection,
   1-11  subdivision, paragraph, or other numbered or lettered unit without
   1-12  further identification is a reference to a unit of the next larger
   1-13  unit of the code in which the reference appears.
   1-14        SECTION 2.  Subchapter A, Chapter 312, Government Code, is
   1-15  amended by adding Section 312.008 to read as follows:
   1-16        Sec. 312.008.  STATUTORY REFERENCES.  Unless expressly
   1-17  provided otherwise, a reference to any portion of a statute applies
   1-18  to all reenactments, revisions, or amendments of the statute.
   1-19        SECTION 3.  Section 312.011, Government Code, is amended by
   1-20  amending Subdivision (12) and adding Subdivision (20) to read as
   1-21  follows:
   1-22              (12)  "Preceding federal census" or "most recent
   1-23  federal census" means the United States decennial census
   1-24  immediately preceding the action in question.
    2-1              (20)  "Population" means the population shown by the
    2-2  most recent federal decennial census.
    2-3        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-8  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-9  passage, and it is so enacted.