By Crabb                                              H.B. No. 1353
       74R4561 CAG-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the bonding or insurance requirements of a political
    1-3  subdivision for the issuance of certain plumbing permits.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 15, The Plumbing License Law (Article
    1-6  6243-101, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as
    1-7  follows:
    1-8        Sec. 15.  LOCAL <MUNICIPAL> RULES AND REGULATIONS.  (a)
    1-9  Every city in this state of more than five thousand (5,000)
   1-10  inhabitants shall, and any city or town of this state may, by
   1-11  ordinance or by-law, prescribe rules and regulations for the
   1-12  materials, construction, alteration and inspection of all pipes,
   1-13  faucets, tanks, valves and other fixtures by and through which a
   1-14  supply of water, gas or sewage is used or carried; and provided
   1-15  that they shall not be placed in any building therein except in
   1-16  accordance with such rules and regulations; and shall further
   1-17  provide that no plumbing shall be done except in case of repairing
   1-18  of leaks, without a permit being first issued therefor upon such
   1-19  terms and conditions as such city or town shall prescribe; provided
   1-20  that no such ordinance, by-law, rule or regulation prescribed by
   1-21  any such city or town shall be inconsistent with this Act, or any
   1-22  rule or regulation adopted or prescribed by the State Board of
   1-23  Plumbing Examiners.
   1-24        (b)  A political subdivision that requires a master plumber
    2-1  to have a bond before the master plumber may be issued a permit by
    2-2  the subdivision shall also accept, instead of a bond, a certificate
    2-3  of insurance that meets the requirements of Subsection (c) of this
    2-4  section.
    2-5        (c)  A certificate of insurance must:
    2-6              (1)  be written by a company licensed to do business in
    2-7  this state;
    2-8              (2)  provide for commercial general liability insurance
    2-9  for the master plumber for claims for property damage or bodily
   2-10  injury, regardless of whether the claim  arises from a negligence
   2-11  claim or on a contract claim; and
   2-12              (3)  be in a coverage amount of not less than $300,000
   2-13  for all claims arising in any one-year period.
   2-14        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   2-15  applies only to a permit issued to a master plumber by a political
   2-16  subdivision on or after the effective date of this Act.  A permit
   2-17  issued before September 1, 1995, is governed by the law as it
   2-18  existed before the effective date of this Act, and the former law
   2-19  is continued in effect for that purpose.
   2-20        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-21  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-22  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-23  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-24  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.