By:  Barrientos                               S.B. No. 917

         97S0294/1                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to the ownership of a professional association.

 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-3           SECTION 1.  Subsection (B), Section 2, Texas Professional

 1-4     Association Act (Article 1528f, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is

 1-5     amended to read as follows:

 1-6           (B)  Licenses.  All members of the association shall be

 1-7     licensed to perform the type of professional service for which the

 1-8     association is formed. For the purposes of this Act, persons

 1-9     licensed by the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners and persons

1-10     licensed by the Texas State Board of Podiatric Medical Examiners

1-11     shall be deemed to be licensed to perform the same type of

1-12     professional service so as to permit the joint ownership of a

1-13     professional association by podiatrists and doctors of medicine and

1-14     doctors of osteopathy.

1-15           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-16           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.