By:  Barrientos                              S.B. No. 1882

         97S0458/1                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to determining the level of impairment of certain

 1-2     employees.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 408.124, Labor Code, is

 1-5     amended to read as follows:

 1-6           (b)  The commission shall use for determining the existence

 1-7     and degree of an employee's impairment "Guides to the Evaluation of

 1-8     Permanent Impairment," fourth [third] edition, second printing,

 1-9     dated June, 1993 [February 1989], published by the American Medical

1-10     Association.

1-11           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-12           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-13     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-14     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-15     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-16     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.