By Hunter of Nueces                                   H.B. No. 3046
       74R6749 MI-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to vessels and obstructions in fish passes.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Sections 66.204(a) and (b), Parks and Wildlife
    1-5  Code, are amended to read as follows:
    1-6        (a)  The commission by proclamation may regulate the
    1-7  placement of obstructions, traps, and mooring in fish passes and
    1-8  the marking of restricted areas in any natural or artificial pass
    1-9  that is opened, reopened, dredged, excavated, constructed, or
   1-10  maintained by the department as a fish pass between the Gulf of
   1-11  Mexico and an inland bay.
   1-12        (b)  No person may operate, possess, or moor a vessel or
   1-13  other floating device, or may place any piling, wire, rope, cable,
   1-14  net, trap, or other obstruction, in a natural or artificial pass
   1-15  opened, reopened, dredged, excavated, constructed, or maintained by
   1-16  the department as a fish pass between the Gulf of Mexico and an
   1-17  inland bay <,> within the <a> distance <of 2,800 feet> inside the
   1-18  pass  <measured> from the mouth of the pass where it empties into
   1-19  <or opens on> the Gulf of Mexico and a permanent marker or sign
   1-20  erected by the department indicating the restricted area.
   1-21        <(b)  The department shall erect permanent iron or concrete
   1-22  monuments showing the restricted area.>
   1-23        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-24  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-1  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-2  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-3  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-4  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-5  passage, and it is so enacted.