1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to requiring the office of the attorney general to defend

 1-3     local community supervision and corrections departments in certain

 1-4     suits brought against them.

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

 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 76.006, Government Code, is amended to

 1-7     read as follows:

 1-8           Sec. 76.006.  Employee Status and Benefits.  (a)  Except as

 1-9     provided by Subsection (c), department employees are not state

1-10     employees.  The department shall contract with the most populous

1-11     county served by the department for insurance and retirement plans,

1-12     and the employees are governed by personnel policies and benefits

1-13     equal to personnel policies for and benefits of other employees of

1-14     that county.

1-15           (b)  The judicial districts served by a department shall pay

1-16     the salaries of department employees.

1-17           (c)  Department employees are state employees for the

1-18     purposes of Chapter 104, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, and

1-19     Chapter 501, Labor Code.

1-20           (d)  The attorney general has the duty to defend a department

1-21     for suits for injunctive, declaratory, or monetary relief brought

1-22     against it for any action not covered by an indemnification policy,

1-23     except any action brought by the state or another political

1-24     subdivision.  The attorney general shall not defend a department or

 2-1     its employees in cases in which a person under supervision

 2-2     challenges the fact or duration of the supervision.

 2-3           (e)  The department shall provide information requested by

 2-4     the attorney general that the attorney general considers necessary

 2-5     for the defense or prosecution of any case brought under this

 2-6     section.  [A department is a governmental unit for the purposes of

 2-7     Section 101.103(a), Civil Practice and Remedies Code.]

 2-8           (f) [(e)]  The department shall provide transportation or

 2-9     automobile allowances for officers who supervise defendants placed

2-10     on community supervision.

2-11           SECTION 2.  The changes in law made by this Act apply only to

2-12     a cause of action that accrues on or after the effective date of

2-13     this article.  A cause of action that accrues before the effective

2-14     date of this article is governed by the law in effect on the date

2-15     the cause of action accrues, and that law is continued in effect

2-16     for this purpose.

2-17           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect on September 1, 1997.

2-18           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.

         _______________________________     _______________________________

             President of the Senate              Speaker of the House

               I certify that H.B. No. 2779 was passed by the House on April

         18, 1997, by a non-record vote.

                                             _______________________________

                                                 Chief Clerk of the House

               I certify that H.B. No. 2779 was passed by the Senate on May

         26, 1997, by the following vote:  Yeas 31, Nays 0.

                                             _______________________________

                                                 Secretary of the Senate

         APPROVED:  _____________________

                            Date

                    _____________________

                          Governor