1-1     By:  Craddick (Senate Sponsor - Bivins)                H.B. No. 924
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 9, 1999;
 1-3     April 12, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Criminal Justice; April 30, 1999, reported favorably by the
 1-5     following vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0; April 30, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the offense of operation of a vehicle with an expired
 1-9     license plate.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 502.407(a), Transportation Code, is
1-12     amended to read as follows:
1-13           (a)  A person commits an offense if, after the fifth working
1-14     day after the date the registration for the vehicle expires:
1-15                 (1)  the person operates on a public highway during a
1-16     registration period a motor vehicle, trailer, or semitrailer that
1-17     has attached to it a license plate for the preceding period; and
1-18                 (2)  the license plate has not been validated by the
1-19     attachment of a registration insignia for the registration period
1-20     in effect.
1-21           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-22     The change in law made by this Act applies only to an offense
1-23     committed on or after the effective date of this Act.  For purposes
1-24     of this section, an offense is committed before the effective date
1-25     of this Act if any element of the offense occurs before that date.
1-26           (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
1-27     Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
1-28     and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
1-29           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-30     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-31     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-32     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-33     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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