1-1  By:  Thompson (Senate Sponsor - Henderson)            H.B. No. 2096
    1-2        (In the Senate - Received from the House April 10, 1995;
    1-3  April 11, 1995, read first time and referred to Committee on
    1-4  Jurisprudence; May 3, 1995, reported favorably by the following
    1-5  vote:  Yeas 6, Nays 0; May 3, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to the appointment of a special judge to preside in a
    1-9  justice court in Harris County.
   1-10        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-11        SECTION 1.  Section 75.404(e), Government Code, is amended to
   1-12  read as follows:
   1-13        (e)  If a justice of the peace in Harris County is absent or
   1-14  for any reason unable to preside, the presiding judge may appoint a
   1-15  former justice of the peace or a former county court, statutory
   1-16  county court, or district court judge who served as a judge
   1-17  <justice of the peace> in this state and who consents to the
   1-18  appointment as a special judge to preside for the justice of the
   1-19  peace.  The presiding judge may designate the duration of the
   1-20  appointment, not to exceed 60 days, and may revoke an appointment
   1-21  at any time.  The qualifications, duties, and powers of a special
   1-22  judge are the same as for the regular justice of the peace.
   1-23        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-24  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-25  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-26  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-27  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-28  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-29  passage, and it is so enacted.
   1-30                               * * * * *