By Lewis of Tarrant                                   H.B. No. 1315
         76R5959 GWK-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to requiring the Board of Pardons and Paroles and parole
 1-3     panels of the Board of Pardons and Paroles to meet to perform
 1-4     duties.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Sections 508.047(b) and (d), Government Code, are
 1-7     amended to read as follows:
 1-8           (b)  The members of the board must [are not required to] meet
 1-9     as a body to perform the members' duties in clemency matters.
1-10           (d)  The members of a parole panel must [are not required to]
1-11     meet as a body to perform the members' duties[, except to conduct a
1-12     hearing  under Section 508.281].
1-13           SECTION 2.  Section 551.124, Government Code, is repealed.
1-14           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-15           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-16     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-17     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-18     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-19     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.