1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to increases in tuition and fees  charged by public

 1-3     institutions of higher education.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 54, Education Code, is

 1-6     amended by adding Section 54.009 to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 54.009.  INCREASE IN TUITION RATE OR FEES.  An

 1-8     institution of higher education that sets the tuition rates and

 1-9     fees for a semester or summer term and permits a student to

1-10     register for that semester or summer term may not increase the

1-11     tuition rate or fees charged that student for that semester or

1-12     summer term after the student registers regardless of whether that

1-13     student has paid the tuition and fees for that semester or summer

1-14     term.

1-15           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with tuition and fees

1-16     due for the spring semester of 1998.

1-17           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-18     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-22     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-23     passage, and it is so enacted.

         _______________________________     _______________________________

             President of the Senate              Speaker of the House

               I certify that H.B. No. 65 was passed by the House on April

         25, 1997, by the following vote:  Yeas 145, Nays 0, 3 present, not

         voting; and that the House concurred in Senate amendments to H.B.

         No. 65 on May 21, 1997, by a non-record vote.

                                             _______________________________

                                                 Chief Clerk of the House

               I certify that H.B. No. 65 was passed by the Senate, with

         amendments, on May 19, 1997, by the following vote:  Yeas 30, Nays

         0.

                                             _______________________________

                                                 Secretary of the Senate

         APPROVED:  _____________________

                            Date

                    _____________________

                          Governor