1-1 By: McClendon, et al. (Senate Sponsor - Armbrister) H.B. No. 127 1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House March 29, 1999; 1-3 March 30, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on 1-4 Criminal Justice; May 10, 1999, reported favorably by the following 1-5 vote: Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 10, 1999, sent to printer.) 1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-7 AN ACT 1-8 relating to the participation of Texas Department of Criminal 1-9 Justice inmates in community service projects performed by state 1-10 agencies and local governments. 1-11 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-12 SECTION 1. Section 497.091(b), Government Code, is amended 1-13 to read as follows: 1-14 (b) The department shall seek contracts with agencies and 1-15 local governments to provide inmate labor to those agencies and 1-16 governments, with the department giving priority to seeking 1-17 contracts for the use of inmate labor for service projects that 1-18 benefit the public. 1-19 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the 1-20 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 1-21 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 1-22 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 1-23 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended, 1-24 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its 1-25 passage, and it is so enacted. 1-26 * * * * *