By Goolsby                                            H.B. No. 1254
         76R4990 MLS-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 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 providing passport services,
1-11     including taking passport photographs, a district clerk may collect
1-12     a reasonable fee in an amount set by the commissioners court of the
1-13     county in which the district clerk's 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.