By Eiland                                              H.B. No. 745
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the exemption of certain persons from the requirement
 1-3     to be licensed as an engineer.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 20, The Texas Engineering Practice Act
 1-6     (Article 3271a, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by
 1-7     adding Subsection (m) to read as follows:
 1-8           (m)  A person who claims an exemption from this Act under
 1-9     Subsection (e) or (f) of this section who is determined to have
1-10     directly or indirectly held the person out as legally qualified to
1-11     engage in the practice of engineering may not claim an exemption
1-12     under this section until the 10th anniversary of the date the
1-13     person held the person out as qualified to engage in the practice
1-14     of engineering.
1-15           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-16     applies to a license fee, annual renewal fee, or reciprocal license
1-17     fee paid to the Texas Board of Professional Engineers that becomes
1-18     due on or after that date.  A fee that is collected by the board on
1-19     or after that date but that became due before that date is governed
1-20     by the law in effect on the date that the fee became due, and the
1-21     former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
1-22           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-23     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-24     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-1     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-2     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.