By Hupp                                                H.B. No. 535
         76R2716 JD-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the number of license plates to be issued for and
 1-3     displayed on a motor vehicle.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 502, Transportation Code,
 1-6     is amended by adding Section 502.010 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 502.010.  ISSUANCE AND DISPLAY OF LICENSE PLATE.  (a)
 1-8     Notwithstanding anything in this chapter to the contrary, including
 1-9     Section 502.180, the department shall issue only one license plate
1-10     for attachment at the rear of the vehicle for which the plate is
1-11     issued.
1-12           (b)  Notwithstanding anything in this chapter to the
1-13     contrary, including Section 502.404(a), a person is entitled to
1-14     operate on a public highway a vehicle that displays only one
1-15     license plate if the plate is attached at the rear of the vehicle.
1-16           (c)  In any provision of this chapter that relates to the
1-17     issuance or display of "license plates," "plates," or a "set of
1-18     plates," the term means only one license plate.
1-19           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.  The
1-20     change in law made by this Act  relating to the display of license
1-21     plates on a motor vehicle that is operated on a public highway
1-22     applies only to the operation of a motor vehicle on a public
1-23     highway on or after September 1, 1999.  The display of license
1-24     plates on a motor vehicle before September 1, 1999, is covered by
 2-1     the law in effect when the vehicle was operated and the former law
 2-2     is continued in effect for that purpose.
 2-3           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-4     crowded condition 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.