By McClendon                                           H.B. No. 133
         76R1404 PEP-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to certain contracts for inmate labor.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 497.091(d), Government Code, is amended
 1-5     to read as follows:
 1-6           (d)  The department shall make reasonable efforts to [may]
 1-7     contract with nonprofit organizations that provide services to the
 1-8     general public and enhance social welfare and the general
 1-9     well-being of the community to provide inmate labor to those
1-10     organizations.  In entering contracts under this subsection, the
1-11     department shall give preference to nonprofit organizations that
1-12     will use the inmate labor in a manner that increases the inmates'
1-13     vocational skills.
1-14           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-15           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-16     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-17     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-18     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-19     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.