By Dukes                                               H.B. No. 621
         76R2603 DRH-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the requirements for the location of a correctional or
 1-3     rehabilitation facility.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 244.004, Local Government Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Subsections (c) and (d) to read as follows:
 1-7           (c)  A public hearing under Subsection (a)  must be held in a
 1-8     public meeting facility that is as close as possible to the
 1-9     proposed location of  the correctional or rehabilitation facility.
1-10           (d)  An entity that is required to give notice under Section
1-11     244.002(a) may not enter a contract, including a lease, for the
1-12     construction or operation of the proposed correctional or
1-13     rehabilitation facility  until the period during which local
1-14     consent may be denied under Subsection (a) has expired.
1-15           SECTION 2.  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,
1-20     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-21     passage, and it is so enacted.