By Dutton                                             H.B. No. 1366
       74R5645 KLL-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to information in county records and on death certificates
    1-3  concerning places in which remains are interred; providing criminal
    1-4  penalties.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Section 711.003, Health and Safety Code, is
    1-7  amended to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 711.003.  RECORDS OF INTERMENT.  (a)  A record shall be
    1-9  kept of each interment in a cemetery.  The record must include:
   1-10              (1)  the date the remains are received;
   1-11              (2)  the date the remains are interred;
   1-12              (3)  the name and age of the person interred if those
   1-13  facts can be conveniently obtained; and
   1-14              (4)  the identity of the plot in which the remains are
   1-15  interred.
   1-16        (b)  A cemetery association shall file copies of the records
   1-17  with the county clerk of the county in which the cemetery is
   1-18  located.  The copies shall be filed not later than December 31 of
   1-19  the year of interment of the remains to which the records pertain.
   1-20        (c)  A cemetery association commits an offense if the
   1-21  cemetery association fails to comply with Subsection (b).  An
   1-22  offense under this subsection is a Class B misdemeanor.
   1-23        SECTION 2.  Section 711.034, Health and Safety Code, is
   1-24  amended by adding Subsection (g) to read as follows:
    2-1        (g)  A cemetery association commits an offense if the
    2-2  cemetery association fails to comply with Subsection (a), (b), (c),
    2-3  or (e).  An offense under this section is a  Class B misdemeanor.
    2-4        SECTION 3.  Section 193.001, Health and Safety Code, is
    2-5  amended to read as follows:
    2-6        Sec. 193.001.  Form of Certificate.  (a)  The department
    2-7  shall prescribe the form and contents of death certificates and
    2-8  fetal death certificates.
    2-9        (b)  The department shall require death certificates and
   2-10  fetal death certificates to include the name of the place and the
   2-11  identity of the plot in which a decedent's remains will be interred
   2-12  or, if the remains will not be interred, the place and manner of
   2-13  other disposition.
   2-14        SECTION 4.  A cemetery association that, on the effective
   2-15  date of this Act, has not complied with Section 711.034, Health and
   2-16  Safety Code, shall comply with that law not later than September
   2-17  30, 1995.
   2-18        SECTION 5.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, except
   2-19  that Section 2 of this Act takes effect October 1, 1995.
   2-20        SECTION 6.  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.