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.
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