By Hirschi                                       H.B. No. 868

      75R2518 JRD-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to placing a marker in the State Cemetery to honor certain

 1-3     persons.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 2165.256, Government Code, is amended by

 1-6     adding Subsection (m) to read as follows:

 1-7           (m)  The commission on request shall erect a marker in the

 1-8     State Cemetery to commemorate the service to Texas or the

 1-9     contribution to Texas history of a person who is buried elsewhere

1-10     but who was eligible for burial in the State Cemetery because of

1-11     the person's service in the legislature or as a state official or

1-12     because of the person's contribution to Texas history recognized in

1-13     accordance with this section. In determining the wording on the

1-14     marker, the commission may consult the Texas Historical Commission

1-15     and the requestor and shall take into account the wording of any

1-16     applicable proclamation of the governor or resolution of the

1-17     legislature.  A request under this subsection may have been made

1-18     during the person's lifetime by the person eligible for burial and

1-19     may be made by the person's spouse, child, parent, or sibling; the

1-20     executor or administrator of the person's estate; the governor; or

1-21     the legislature in the form of a simple or concurrent resolution.

1-22     This subsection does not affect whether a person who is buried

1-23     elsewhere but who was eligible for burial in the State Cemetery may

1-24     be reinterred in the State Cemetery.

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

 2-2     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-3     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-4     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-5     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 2-6     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

 2-7     passage, and it is so enacted.