By Noriega                                            H.B. No. 1744
         76R9000 DRH-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to additional equipment requirements for school buses.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 547.701(b), Transportation Code, is
 1-5     amended to read as follows:
 1-6           (b)  A school bus may be equipped with:
 1-7                 (1)  rooftop warning lamps[:]
 1-8                       [(A)]  that conform to and are placed on the bus
 1-9     in accordance with specifications adopted under Section 34.002,
1-10     Education Code; and
1-11                       [(B)  that may be operated only during inclement
1-12     weather when the bus is stopping or is stopped to load or unload
1-13     students; and]
1-14                 (2)  movable stop arms:
1-15                       (A)  that conform to regulations adopted under
1-16     Section 34.002, Education Code; and
1-17                       (B)  that may be operated only when the bus is
1-18     stopped to load or unload students.
1-19           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
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.