By Serna                                              H.B. No. 2776
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to requiring certain employees and applicants for
    1-3  employment at convalescent and nursing homes and related
    1-4  institutions to submit to drug testing.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 242, Health and Safety
    1-7  Code, is amended by adding Section 242.050 to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 242.050.  DRUG TESTING.  (a)  An applicant for
    1-9  employment at, or an employee of, an institution shall submit to
   1-10  testing for the use of certain controlled substances, as that term
   1-11  is defined by Chapter 481, if the results of a criminal history
   1-12  check conducted under Chapter 250 reveal that a person has been
   1-13  convicted of:
   1-14              (1)  an offense listed in Section 250.005; or
   1-15              (2)  a felony violation of a statute intended to
   1-16  control the possession or distribution of a controlled substance,
   1-17  as that term is defined by Chapter 481.
   1-18        (b)  An institution may not employ an applicant, and shall
   1-19  terminate the employment of an employee, if the applicant or
   1-20  employee fails to pass the testing conducted under Subsection (a).
   1-21        (c)  The board shall adopt rules as necessary to implement
   1-22  this section, including rules that prescribe:
   1-23              (1)  the facilities qualified to administer testing;
    2-1              (2)  the controlled substances for which the testing
    2-2  must screen, based on a cost-benefit analysis that considers the
    2-3  availability of a substance, the extent of its illegal use in this
    2-4  state, and its impact on a person's performance;
    2-5              (3)  the criteria by which the department shall
    2-6  determine that a person has failed the testing; and
    2-7              (4)  procedures through which a person may challenge a
    2-8  determination that the person has failed the testing.
    2-9        (d)  In adopting rules under this section, the board shall
   2-10  ensure that the safety, confidentiality, and privacy and other
   2-11  legal rights of all affected persons are adequately protected.  The
   2-12  board shall ensure that all rules comply with applicable state and
   2-13  federal laws.
   2-14        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-15  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-16  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-17  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-18  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-19  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-20  passage, and it is so enacted.