By Turner of Coleman                                  H.B. No. 1621
         76R5952 PEP-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to providing to honorably discharged veterans an exemption
 1-3     from the fee required for a license to carry a concealed handgun.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter H, Chapter 411, Government Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Section 411.1955 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 411.1955.  FEE EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN VETERANS.
 1-8     Notwithstanding any other provision of this subchapter, an
 1-9     applicant is exempt from any fee required for the issuance of an
1-10     original, duplicate, or modified license under this subchapter if
1-11     the applicant for the license served on active duty in the armed
1-12     forces of the United States or in the state military forces as
1-13     defined by Section 431.001, Government Code, and received an
1-14     honorable discharge.
1-15           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
1-16     to a fee otherwise due from an applicant on or after the effective
1-17     date of this Act. A fee paid before the effective date of this Act
1-18     is covered by the law in effect when the fee was paid, and the
1-19     former law is continued in effect for this purpose.
1-20           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-21     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-22     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-23     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-24     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 2-1     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-2     passage, and it is so enacted.