By Ellis                                               S.B. No. 474
       74R3749 CLG-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the prohibition of discrimination by certain surety
    1-3  companies.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Chapter 7, Insurance Code, is amended by adding
    1-6  Article 7.03 to read as follows:
    1-7        Art. 7.03.  DISCRIMINATION IN RATES OR ISSUANCE.  A surety
    1-8  company authorized to do business in this state may not
    1-9  discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national
   1-10  origin, or sex in the setting of rates or the issuance of a bond,
   1-11  undertaking, obligation, recognizance, or guarantee.
   1-12        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-13  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-14  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-15  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-16  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-17  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-18  passage, and it is so enacted.