By Chavez                                              H.B. No. 316
         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the declaration of the birthday of Cesar Chavez as a
 1-3     legal holiday.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Title 72, Revised Statutes, as amended, is
 1-6     amended by adding 4591.5 to read as follows:
 1-7           Art. 4591.5  CESAR CHAVEZ DAY.  (a)  The 31st of March shall
 1-8     be designated "Cesar Chavez Day" in observance of the birthday of
 1-9     Cesar Chavez.
1-10           (b)  The administrative head of a state agency may allow an
1-11     employee of the agency to have a day off with pay on Cesar Chavez
1-12     Day in lieu of any other state holiday that occurs on a weekday,
1-13     other than a weekday on which an election to be held throughout the
1-14     state, and on which the state agency is required to be open but
1-15     whose operations are not required to be open but whose operations
1-16     are required to be maintained only at a minimum level.
1-17           (c)  On Cesar Chavez day, each state agency shall remain open
1-18     and conduct the operations of the agency at a minimum level.
1-19           (d)  A holiday allowed under this article is in lieu of
1-20     another holiday prescribed by law.  The total number of holidays in
1-21     a year to which an employee of a state agency is entitled is not
 2-1     changed by this article.
 2-2           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-3           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-4     crowded conditions 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,
 2-8     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-9     passage, and it is so enacted.