1-1     By:  Hightower, Place, et al.                         H.B. No. 1422

 1-2          (Senate Sponsor - Whitmire)

 1-3           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 1, 1997;

 1-4     April 2, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on

 1-5     Criminal Justice; May 7, 1997, reported favorably by the following

 1-6     vote:  Yeas 4, Nays 0; May 7, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-7                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-8                                   AN ACT

 1-9     relating to prohibiting employment discrimination against certain

1-10     employees of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for refusing

1-11     to take a polygraph examination.

1-12           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-13           SECTION 1.  Chapter 493, Government Code, is amended by

1-14     adding Section 493.022 to read as follows:

1-15           Sec. 493.022.  POLYGRAPH EXAMINATION.  An employee of the

1-16     department who is the subject of a written complaint made by or

1-17     filed with the department may not be suspended, discharged, or

1-18     subjected to any other form of employment discrimination by the

1-19     department because the employee refuses to take a polygraph

1-20     examination.

1-21           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-25     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-26     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-27     passage, and it is so enacted.

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