By Hamric                                             H.B. No. 2980
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to coverage for district judges and volunteer fire
    1-3  departments under the County Government Risk Management Pool.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 119.001, Local Government Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Subdivision (5) to read as follows:
    1-7              (5)  "Volunteer fire department" means a fire
    1-8  department that has contracted with a county for provision of fire
    1-9  protection or fire-fighting equipment under the authority of
   1-10  Subchapter A, Chapter 352, Texas Local Government Code and which is
   1-11  operated by its members on a not-for-profit basis.
   1-12        SECTION 2.  Chapter 119, Local Government Code, is amended by
   1-13  adding Sections 119.010 and 119.011 to read as follows:
   1-14        Sec. 119.010.  CERTAIN COVERAGE AUTHORIZED; DISTRICT JUDGES.
   1-15  The pool may provide coverage against liability for the acts or
   1-16  omissions of a district judge, whose judicial district lies, in
   1-17  whole or in part, within the geographic boundaries of a county
   1-18  participating in a pool, that arises in the course and scope of the
   1-19  judge's official duties as a judge.  A county participating in the
   1-20  pool, a district judge from personal funds, or a combination
   1-21  thereof, may pay the additional cost of this coverage.
   1-22        Sec. 119.011.  CERTAIN COVERAGE AUTHORIZED; VOLUNTEER FIRE
   1-23  DEPARTMENTS.  The pool may provide coverage against liability for
    2-1  the acts or omissions of:
    2-2              (1)  a volunteer fire department that contracts with a
    2-3  county participating in the pool for the provision of fire
    2-4  protection or fire-fighting equipment pursuant to Subchapter A,
    2-5  Chapter 352, Texas Local Government Code,;
    2-6              (2)  a volunteer for a fire department described by
    2-7  Subdivision (1), to the extent the acts or omissions arise in the
    2-8  course and scope of the volunteer's activities as a volunteer for
    2-9  the fire department; and
   2-10              (3)  a person described in Section 352.004(b) of the
   2-11  Texas Local Government Code.
   2-12        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-13  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-14  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-15  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-16  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-17  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-18  passage, and it is so enacted.