By Hightower                                          H.B. No. 1427

         Substitute the following for H.B. No. 1427:

         By Gray                                           C.S.H.B. No. 1427

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the possession and use of tobacco products by employees

 1-3     of the institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal

 1-4     Justice.

 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-6           SECTION 1.  Chapter 494, Government Code, is amended by

 1-7     adding Section 494.010 to read as follows:

 1-8           Sec. 494.010.  EMPLOYEES' POSSESSION AND USE OF TOBACCO

 1-9     PRODUCTS.  A rule adopted by the board that regulates the

1-10     possession and use of tobacco products by department employees must

1-11     provide that employees of the department are permitted  to use

1-12     tobacco products during work hours at times and locations

1-13     designated by the board.  In designating  locations at which the

1-14     use of tobacco products is permitted, the board shall designate

1-15     locations that:

1-16                 (1)  are at a sufficient distance from a place at which

1-17     employees regularly perform duties to ensure that no employee who

1-18     abstains from the use of tobacco products is physically affected by

1-19     the use of tobacco products at the location; and

1-20                 (2)  do not negatively affect the comfort or safety of

1-21     any employee or inmate.

1-22           SECTION 2.  The Texas Board of Criminal Justice, not later

1-23     than the 90th day after the effective date of this Act, must amend

1-24     any rule of the department regulating the possession and use of

 2-1     tobacco products of department employees as necessary to comply

 2-2     with the provisions of Section 494.010, Government Code, as added

 2-3     by this Act.

 2-4           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-5     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-6     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-7     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-8     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 2-9     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-10     passage, and it is so enacted.