By:  Lucio                                             S.B. No. 916
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to citrus diseases and pests.
    1-2        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-3        SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 71, Agriculture Code, is
    1-4  amended by adding Section 71.0091 to read as follows:
    1-5        71.0091.  Seizure, Treatment, and Destruction of Citrus
    1-6  Plants, Citrus Plant Products, and Other Citrus Substances.
    1-7        (a)  The department shall seize any citrus plant, citrus
    1-8  plant product, or citrus substance that it determines:
    1-9              (1)  is transported or carried from a quarantined area
   1-10  in violation of a quarantine order; or
   1-11              (2)  is infected with a disease or insect pest
   1-12  dangerous to any citrus plant, citrus product or citrus substances,
   1-13  whether or not the citrus plant, citrus product, or citrus
   1-14  substance comes from an area known to be infested.
   1-15        (b)  If a citrus plant, citrus plant product, or citrus
   1-16  substance is seized under Subsection (a)(1) of this section, the
   1-17  department shall immediately notify the owner that the citrus
   1-18  plant, citrus product, or citrus substance is a public menace and
   1-19  that it must be destroyed, treated, or, if feasible, returned to
   1-20  the point of origin.  If a citrus plant, citrus product, or citrus
   1-21  substance is seized under Subsection (a)(2) of this section, the
   1-22  department shall immediately notify the owner that the citrus
   1-23  plant, citrus product, or citrus substance is a public menace and
    2-1  that it must be destroyed or treated.
    2-2        (c)  If the owner of a citrus plant, citrus plant product, or
    2-3  citrus substance seized under Subsection (a) of this section is
    2-4  unknown to the department, the department shall publish notice
    2-5  that, after a date not less than 10 days after the first day of
    2-6  publication, the department will destroy the citrus plant, citrus
    2-7  product, or citrus substance.  The department shall publish the
    2-8  notice for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general
    2-9  circulation in the county where the citrus plant, citrus product,
   2-10  or citrus substance is found.  The notice must describe the article
   2-11  seized.  If the owner claims the article before the date for
   2-12  destruction set by the notice, the department shall deliver the
   2-13  article to the owner at the owner's expense.  If the owner does not
   2-14  claim the article within the allotted time, the department may
   2-15  destroy the article or have it destroyed.
   2-16        (d)  If the owner of a citrus plant, citrus product or citrus
   2-17  substance condemned by the department under this subchapter fails
   2-18  or refuses to destroy the citrus plant, citrus product or citrus
   2-19  substance immediately after being instructed to do so by the
   2-20  department, the department shall abate the nuisance and immediately
   2-21  destroy the citrus plant, citrus product or citrus substance or
   2-22  otherwise render the citrus plant, citrus product or citrus
   2-23  substance not a nuisance.  In enforcing this subsection, the
   2-24  department shall call on the sheriff of the county in which the
   2-25  citrus plant, citrus product, or citrus substance is located, and
    3-1  the sheriff shall cooperate with the department and render all
    3-2  assistance considered necessary by the person seeking to destroy
    3-3  the citrus plant, citrus product or citrus substance.
    3-4        (e)  The owner of a citrus plant, citrus plant product, or
    3-5  citrus substance treated or destroyed by the department under this
    3-6  section is liable to the department for the costs of treatment or
    3-7  destruction, and the department may sue to collect those costs.
    3-8        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-9  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   3-10  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   3-11  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   3-12  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   3-13  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   3-14  passage, and it is so enacted.