By Driver                                              H.B. No. 319
         76R1883 JD-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the penalty for tampering with certain governmental
 1-3     records.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 37.10, Penal Code, is amended by amending
 1-6     Subsection (c) and adding Subsection (i) to read as follows:
 1-7           (c) Except as provided in Subsection (d) or (i), an offense
 1-8     under this section is a Class A misdemeanor unless the actor's
 1-9     intent is to defraud or harm another, in which event the offense is
1-10     a state jail felony.
1-11           (i)  An offense under Subsection (a)(4) or (a)(6) is  a
1-12     felony of the third degree if the governmental record is an
1-13     evidence of financial responsibility.  In this subsection,
1-14     "evidence of financial responsibility" means a document or a
1-15     certificate described by Section 601.053, Transportation Code.
1-16           SECTION 2.  Sections 601.087 and 601.196, Transportation
1-17     Code, are repealed.
1-18           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.  The
1-19     changes in law made by this Act apply only to an offense committed
1-20     on or after September 1, 1999.  An offense committed before
1-21     September 1, 1999, is covered by the law in effect when the offense
1-22     was committed, and the former law is continued in effect for that
1-23     purpose.  For purposes of this section, an offense was committed
1-24     before September 1, 1999, if any element of the offense occurred
 2-1     before that date.
 2-2           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-3     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-4     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-5     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-6     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.