By Thompson                                      H.B. No. 591

      75R3301 MLS-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the compensation of certain judges for certain

 1-3     hearings.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Sections 574.031(h) and (i), Health and Safety

 1-6     Code,  are amended to read as follows:

 1-7           (h)  A judge who holds a hearing under this section in

 1-8     hospitals or locations other than the county courthouse is entitled

 1-9     to be reimbursed for the judge's reasonable and necessary expenses

1-10     related to holding a hearing at that location.  The expenses shall

1-11     be:

1-12                 (1)  collected as court costs in an amount set by the

1-13     commissioners court  of the county responsible for the costs of the

1-14     hearing under Section 571.018(a); and

1-15                 (2)  paid directly to the judge.

1-16           (i)  A judge who holds hearings at locations other than the

1-17     county courthouse also may receive a reasonable salary supplement

1-18     in an amount set by the commissioners court of the county

1-19     responsible for the costs of the hearing under Section 571.018(a).

1-20           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-21     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-22     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-23     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-24     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 2-1     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

 2-2     passage, and it is so enacted.