By Janek                                               H.B. No. 677
         76R2544 SMJ-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to physicians who may complete a certificate of medical
 1-3     examination for mental illness.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 574.009, Health and Safety Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Subsection (e) to read as follows:
 1-7           (e)  In this section, "physician" means:
 1-8                 (1)  a person licensed to practice medicine in this
 1-9     state;
1-10                 (2)  a person employed by a federal agency who has a
1-11     license to practice medicine in any state; or
1-12                 (3)  an intern or resident physician providing medical
1-13     services under an institutional permit at a Texas postgraduate
1-14     training program approved by the Accreditation Council on Graduate
1-15     Medical Education, the American Osteopathic Association, or the
1-16     Texas State Board of Medical Examiners.
1-17           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-18     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-22     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-23     passage, and it is so enacted.