By Allen                                               H.B. No. 581
         76R2666 PAM-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to permitting county officers and employees to receive
 1-3     reduced airline fares while engaged in official county business.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 2171.055(e), Government Code, is amended
 1-6     to read as follows:
 1-7           (e)  A county officer or employee who is engaged in official
 1-8     county business may participate in the commission's contract for
 1-9     travel services for the purpose of obtaining reduced airline fares.
1-10     A county sheriff or deputy sheriff or juvenile probation officer
1-11     who is transporting a state prisoner under a felony warrant may
1-12     participate in the commission's contract for travel services for
1-13     purposes of obtaining reduced airline fares for the law enforcement
1-14     or probation officer and the prisoner.  The commission may charge a
1-15     participating county a fee not to exceed the costs incurred by the
1-16     commission in providing services under this subsection.  The
1-17     commission shall periodically review fees and shall adjust them as
1-18     needed to ensure recovery of costs incurred in providing services
1-19     to counties under this subsection.  The commission shall adopt
1-20     rules and make or amend contracts as necessary to administer this
1-21     subsection.
1-22           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-23           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-1     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-2     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-3     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.