By Junell                                             H.B. No. 2779

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 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.  [A department

 2-3     is a governmental unit for the purposes of Section 101.103(a),

 2-4     Civil Practice and Remedies Code.]

 2-5           (e)  The department shall provide information requested by

 2-6     the attorney general that the attorney general considers necessary

 2-7     for the defense or prosecution of any case brought under this

 2-8     section.

 2-9           SECTION 2.  CIVIL CAUSES OF ACTION.  The changes in law made

2-10     by this Act apply only to a cause of action that accrues on or

2-11     after the effective date of this article.  A cause of action that

2-12     accrues before the effective date of this article is governed by

2-13     the law in effect on the date the cause of action accrues, and that

2-14     law is continued in effect for this purpose.

2-15           SECTION 3.  EFFECTIVE DATE.  This Act takes effect on

2-16     September 1, 1997.

2-17           SECTION 4.  EMERGENCY.  The importance of this legislation

2-18     and the crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-22     and it is so enacted.