1-1  By:  West                                              S.B. No. 131
    1-2        (In the Senate - Filed December 7, 1994; January 16, 1995,
    1-3  read first time and referred to Committee on Health and Human
    1-4  Services; February 22, 1995, reported favorably by the following
    1-5  vote:  Yeas 8, Nays 0; February 22, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to the duties of the Department of Protective and
    1-9  Regulatory Services regarding domestic violence.
   1-10        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-11        SECTION 1.  Section 12, Article 4413(503), Revised Statutes,
   1-12  is amended by adding Subsections (d) and (e) to read as follows:
   1-13        (d)  The department shall adopt and implement rules requiring
   1-14  investigating employees to document indications of domestic
   1-15  violence, including elder, spouse, and child abuse.  The department
   1-16  may develop forms to facilitate the documentation process.  The
   1-17  department shall include statistical compilations of the
   1-18  information documented under this subsection in its annual report.
   1-19        (e)  The department shall adopt rules requiring that written
   1-20  information concerning community services available to victims of
   1-21  domestic violence, printed in English and Spanish, be distributed
   1-22  to those victims.  The department may coordinate its efforts under
   1-23  this subsection with local law enforcement agencies already
   1-24  providing such information.
   1-25        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.  The
   1-26  Department of Protective and Regulatory Services shall adopt and
   1-27  implement the rules required under Subsections (d) and (e), Section
   1-28  12, Article 4413(503), Revised Statutes, as added by this Act, not
   1-29  later than January 1, 1996.
   1-30        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-31  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-32  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-33  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-34  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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