1-1     By:  Hightower (Senate Sponsor - Whitmire)            H.B. No. 1427

 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 7, 1997;

 1-3     May 8, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal

 1-4     Justice; May 18, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote:

 1-5     Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 18, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to the possession and use of tobacco products by employees

 1-9     of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-11           SECTION 1.  Chapter 494, Government Code, is amended by

1-12     adding Section 494.010 to read as follows:

1-13           Sec. 494.010.  EMPLOYEES' POSSESSION AND USE OF TOBACCO

1-14     PRODUCTS.  A rule adopted by the board that regulates the

1-15     possession and use of tobacco products by department employees must

1-16     provide that employees of the department are permitted  to use

1-17     tobacco products during work hours at times and locations

1-18     designated by the board.  In designating  locations at which the

1-19     use of tobacco products is permitted, the board shall designate

1-20     locations that:

1-21                 (1)  are at a sufficient distance from a place at which

1-22     employees regularly perform duties to ensure that no employee who

1-23     abstains from the use of tobacco products is physically affected by

1-24     the use of tobacco products at the location; and

1-25                 (2)  do not negatively affect the comfort or safety of

1-26     any employee or inmate.

1-27           SECTION 2.  The Texas Board of Criminal Justice, not later

1-28     than the 90th day after the effective date of this Act, must amend

1-29     any rule of the department regulating the possession and use of

1-30     tobacco products of department employees as necessary to comply

1-31     with the provisions of Section 494.010, Government Code, as added

1-32     by this Act.

1-33           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-34     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-35     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-36     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-37     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-38     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-39     passage, and it is so enacted.

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