1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to issuance of United States passports by district clerks.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 51, Government Code, is
 1-5     amended by adding Section 51.3031 to read as follows:
 1-6           Sec. 51.3031.  ISSUANCE OF UNITED STATES PASSPORTS.  (a)  A
 1-7     district clerk may perform all duties necessary to process an
 1-8     application for a United States passport, including taking passport
 1-9     photographs.
1-10           (b)  To recover the costs of taking passport photographs, a
1-11     district clerk may collect a reasonable fee in an amount set by the
1-12     commissioners court of the county in which the district clerk's
1-13     office is located.
1-14           (c)  A district clerk, after collecting a fee under
1-15     Subsection (b), shall pay the fee to the county treasurer, or to an
1-16     official who discharges the duties of the county treasurer, for
1-17     deposit in the general fund of the county.
1-18           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-23     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-24     passage, and it is so enacted.
         _______________________________     _______________________________
             President of the Senate              Speaker of the House
               I certify that H.B. No. 1254 was passed by the House on April
         8, 1999, by the following vote:  Yeas 144, Nays 0, 2 present, not
         voting; and that the House concurred in Senate amendments to H.B.
         No. 1254 on May 8, 1999, by the following vote:  Yeas 140, Nays 0,
         1 present, not voting.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Chief Clerk of the House
               I certify that H.B. No. 1254 was passed by the Senate, with
         amendments, on May 6, 1999, by the following vote:  Yeas 30, Nays
         0.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Secretary of the Senate
         APPROVED:  _____________________
                            Date
                    _____________________
                          Governor