By:  West                                              S.B. No. 131
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the duties of the Department of Protective and
    1-2  Regulatory Services regarding domestic violence.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 12, Article 4413(503), Revised Statutes,
    1-5  is amended by adding Subsections (d) and (e) to read as follows:
    1-6        (d)  The department shall adopt and implement rules requiring
    1-7  investigating employees to document indications of domestic
    1-8  violence, including elder, spouse, and child abuse.  The department
    1-9  may develop forms to facilitate the documentation process.  The
   1-10  department shall include statistical compilations of the
   1-11  information documented under this subsection in its annual report.
   1-12        (e)  The department shall adopt rules requiring that written
   1-13  information concerning community services available to victims of
   1-14  domestic violence, printed in English and Spanish, be distributed
   1-15  to those victims.  The department may coordinate its efforts under
   1-16  this subsection with local law enforcement agencies already
   1-17  providing such information.
   1-18        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.  The
   1-19  Department of Protective and Regulatory Services shall adopt and
   1-20  implement the rules required under Subsections (d) and (e), Section
   1-21  12, Article 4413(503), Revised Statutes, as added by this Act, not
   1-22  later than January 1, 1996.
   1-23        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-1  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-2  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-3  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-4  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.