1-1 By: Goolsby (Senate Sponsor - Carona) H.B. No. 1254 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 Jurisprudence; April 28, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable 1-5 Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 4, Nays 0; 1-6 April 28, 1999, sent to printer.) 1-7 COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 1254 By: Harris 1-8 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-9 AN ACT 1-10 relating to issuance of United States passports by district clerks. 1-11 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-12 SECTION 1. Subchapter D, Chapter 51, Government Code, is 1-13 amended by adding Section 51.3031 to read as follows: 1-14 Sec. 51.3031. ISSUANCE OF UNITED STATES PASSPORTS. (a) A 1-15 district clerk may perform all duties necessary to process an 1-16 application for a United States passport, including taking passport 1-17 photographs. 1-18 (b) To recover the costs of taking passport photographs, a 1-19 district clerk may collect a reasonable fee in an amount set by the 1-20 commissioners court of the county in which the district clerk's 1-21 office is located. 1-22 (c) A district clerk, after collecting a fee under 1-23 Subsection (b), shall pay the fee to the county treasurer, or to an 1-24 official who discharges the duties of the county treasurer, for 1-25 deposit in the general fund of the county. 1-26 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the 1-27 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 1-28 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 1-29 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 1-30 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended, 1-31 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its 1-32 passage, and it is so enacted. 1-33 * * * * *