By Thompson                                           H.B. No. 2096
       74R6910 RJA-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the appointment of a special judge to preside in a
    1-3  justice court in Harris County.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 75.404(e), Government Code, is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        (e)  If a justice of the peace in Harris County is absent or
    1-8  for any reason unable to preside, the presiding judge may appoint a
    1-9  former justice of the peace or a former county court, statutory
   1-10  county court, or district court judge who served as a judge
   1-11  <justice of the peace> in this state and who consents to the
   1-12  appointment as a special judge to preside for the justice of the
   1-13  peace.  The presiding judge may designate the duration of the
   1-14  appointment, not to exceed 60 days, and may revoke an appointment
   1-15  at any time.  The qualifications, duties, and powers of a special
   1-16  judge are the same as for the regular justice of the peace.
   1-17        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-18  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-19  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-20  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-21  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-22  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-23  passage, and it is so enacted.