By:  Carriker                                         S.B. No. 1195
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to representation of the Office of the State Long-Term
    1-2  Care Ombudsman of the Department on Aging.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 101.051, Human Resources Code, Chapter
    1-5  159, Acts of the 71st Legislature, Regular Session, 1989, is
    1-6  amended by adding Subsection 5 to read as follows:
    1-7              (5)  "Representative" means an employee or volunteer
    1-8  who is individually so designated by the office of the state
    1-9  long-term care ombudsman.
   1-10        SECTION 2.  Section 101.055, Human Resources Code, Chapter
   1-11  159, Acts of the 71st Legislature, Regular Session, 1989, is
   1-12  amended to read as follows:
   1-13        The department shall ensure that the office receives adequate
   1-14  legal advice and representation.  The office of the attorney
   1-15  general shall represent the ombudsman and any representative of the
   1-16  office against whom suit or other legal action is brought or
   1-17  threatened to be brought in connection with his or her performance
   1-18  of the official duties of the office.
   1-19        SECTION 3.  Section 101.063 of the Human Resources Code,
   1-20  Chapter 159, Acts of the 71st Legislature, Regular Session, 1989,
   1-21  is amended to read as follows:
   1-22        An ombudsman or representative of the office is not liable
   1-23  for civil damages or subject to criminal prosecution for performing
    2-1  official duties unless the ombudsman or representative acts in bad
    2-2  faith or with a malicious purpose.
    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.