By:  Shapiro                                          S.B. No. 1663

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to the business of selling checks.

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

 1-3           SECTION 1.  AMENDMENT.  Section 3, The Sale of Checks Act

 1-4     (Article 489d, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read

 1-5     as follows:

 1-6           Sec. 3.  LICENSE REQUIRED.  No person, except those specified

 1-7     in Section 4 shall engage in the business of selling checks, as a

 1-8     service or for a fee or other consideration, or maintain, utilize,

 1-9     or otherwise control an account in this state for the purpose of

1-10     engaging in the business of selling checks, without having first

1-11     obtained a license hereunder.

1-12           [Any person engaged in said business on the effective date of

1-13     this Act may continue to engage therein without a license until the

1-14     Commissioner shall have acted upon his application for a license,

1-15     provided that such application be filed within thirty (30) days

1-16     after the effective date of this Act.]

1-17           SECTION 2.  SEVERABILITY.  If any section, sentence, clause

1-18     or part of this act shall, for any reason, be held invalid, such

1-19     invalidity shall not affect the remaining portions of the Act, and

1-20     it is hereby declared to be the intention of this legislature to

1-21     have passed each section, sentence, clause, or part irrespective of

1-22     the fact that any other section, sentence, or part may be declared

1-23     invalid.

 2-1           SECTION 3.  EFFECTIVE DATE.  This Act takes effect September

 2-2     1, 1997.

 2-3           SECTION 4.  EMERGENCY.  The importance of this legislation

 2-4     and the crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-5     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-6     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-7     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.