1-1     By:  Counts (Senate Sponsor - Patterson)              H.B. No. 3278

 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 27, 1997;

 1-3     April 29, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on

 1-4     Criminal Justice; May 18, 1997, reported adversely, with favorable

 1-5     Committee Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 6, Nays 0;

 1-6     May 18, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 3278               By:  Patterson

 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-9                                   AN ACT

1-10     relating to designating the Texas National Guard Counterdrug

1-11     Support Program as a law enforcement agency in certain

1-12     circumstances.

1-13           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-14           SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 431, Government Code, is

1-15     amended by adding Section 431.046 to read as follows:

1-16           Sec. 431.046.  PROPERTY FORFEITURE.  When the Texas National

1-17     Guard Counterdrug Support Program assists a federal law enforcement

1-18     agency in enforcing drug laws, the Texas National Guard Counterdrug

1-19     Support Program is considered to be a law enforcement agency of the

1-20     state for the purpose of participating in the sharing of property

1-21     seized or forfeited to the United States under federal law.

1-22           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-23     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-24     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-25     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-26     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-27     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-28     passage, and it is so enacted.

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