1-1           By:  Armbrister                                  S.B. No. 326

 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed January 28, 1997; February 3, 1997,

 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources;

 1-4     February 27, 1997, reported favorably, as amended, by the following

 1-5     vote:  Yeas 6, Nays 0; February 27, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6     COMMITTEE AMENDMENT NO. 1                By:  Barrientos, Wentworth

 1-7     Amend SECTION 1, Section 66.204(b), Parks and Wildlife Code (page

 1-8     1, line 28) by deleting "and a permanent" and inserting "to a"

 1-9                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

1-10                                   AN ACT

1-11     relating to vessels and obstructions in fish passes.

1-12           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-13           SECTION 1.  Subsections (a) and (b), Section 66.204, Parks

1-14     and Wildlife Code, are amended to read as follows:

1-15           (a)  The commission by proclamation may regulate the

1-16     placement of obstructions, traps, and mooring in fish passes and

1-17     the marking of restricted areas in any natural or artificial pass

1-18     that is opened, reopened, dredged, excavated, constructed, or

1-19     maintained by the department as a fish pass between the Gulf of

1-20     Mexico and an inland bay.

1-21           (b)  No person may operate, possess, or moor a vessel or

1-22     other floating device, or may place any piling, wire, rope, cable,

1-23     net, trap, or other obstruction, in a natural or artificial pass

1-24     opened, reopened, dredged, excavated, constructed, or maintained by

1-25     the department as a fish pass between the Gulf of Mexico and an

1-26     inland bay[,] within the [a] distance [of 2,800 feet] inside the

1-27     pass [measured] from the mouth of the pass where it empties into

1-28     [or opens on] the Gulf of Mexico and a permanent marker or sign

1-29     erected by the department indicating the restricted area.

1-30           [(b)  The department shall erect permanent iron or concrete

1-31     monuments showing the restricted area.]

1-32           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-33     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-34     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-35     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-36     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-37     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-38     passage, and it is so enacted.

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