By Keel                                         H.B. No. 2436

      75R8750 T                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the business of selling checks.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 3, Article 489d, Vernon's Texas Civil

 1-5     Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

 1-6           Sec. 3.  No person, except those specified in Section 4 shall

 1-7     engage in the business of selling checks, as a service or for a fee

 1-8     or other consideration, or maintain, utilize, or otherwise control

 1-9     an account in this state for the purpose of engaging in the

1-10     business of selling checks, without having first obtained a license

1-11     hereunder.

1-12           SECTION 2.  SEVERABILITY.  If any section, sentence, clause,

1-13     or part of this Act shall, for any reason, be held invalid, such

1-14     invalidity shall not affect the remaining portions of the Act, and

1-15     it is hereby declared to be the intention of this legislature to

1-16     have passed each section, sentence, clause, or part irrespective of

1-17     the fact that any other section, sentence, or part may be declared

1-18     invalid.

1-19           SECTION 3.  EFFECTIVE DATE.  This Act takes effect on

1-20     September 1, 1997.

1-21           SECTION 4.  EMERGENCY.  The importance of this legislation

1-22     and the 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

 2-1     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 2-2     and it is so enacted.