By:  Barrientos                                       S.B. No. 1168
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the provision of professionals to aid in the treatment
    1-2  of felons for substance abuse.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subsection (e), Section 493.009, Government Code,
    1-5  is amended to read as follows:
    1-6        (e)  The department shall contract through the Texas
    1-7  Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse with nonprofit organizations
    1-8  and private, for-profit entities to provide qualified professionals
    1-9  to implement the program for persons sentenced under Section
   1-10  12.422, Penal Code.  For purposes of this subsection, a "qualified
   1-11  professional" is a person who:
   1-12              (1)  is a certified alcohol and drug abuse counselor;
   1-13              (2)  is a certified social worker or advanced clinical
   1-14  practitioner and who has at least two years of experience in
   1-15  chemical dependency counseling; or
   1-16              (3)  is a licensed professional counselor, physician,
   1-17  or psychologist and who has at least two years of experience in
   1-18  chemical dependency counseling.
   1-19        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-20  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-21  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-1  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-2  passage, and it is so enacted.