By Truan                                              S.B. No. 1277
          Substitute the following for S.B. No. 1277:
          By Crabb                                          C.S.S.B. No. 1277
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to increased civil penalties for deceptive and fraudulent
    1-3  practices against elderly consumers.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Article 17.47, Business and Commerce Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding subsection (g) to read as follows:
    1-7        (g)  Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (c) of this
    1-8  section, in addition to the request for a temporary restraining
    1-9  order, temporary injunction or permanent injunction in a proceeding
   1-10  brought under subsection (a) of this section, the consumer
   1-11  protection division may request a civil penalty of not more than
   1-12  $5,000 per violation, not to exceed a total of $25,000, if the
   1-13  consumer protection division determines that the act or practice
   1-14  complained of was calculated to acquire or deprive money or
   1-15  property from one or more consumers who were at least 60 years old
   1-16  at the time the alleged violation occurred.
   1-17        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   1-18        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-19  crowded conditions of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-20  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-21  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-22  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-23  and this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-24  passage, and it is so enacted.