By Averitt                                            H.B. No. 1880
         76R6842 ESH-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to certain expenditures by corporations and labor
 1-3     organizations for appearances by candidates for public office.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 253, Election Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Section 253.105 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 253.105.  EXPENDITURE FOR APPEARANCE BY CANDIDATE.  (a)
 1-8     A corporation or labor organization may make one or more direct
 1-9     campaign expenditures from its own property for the purpose of
1-10     permitting a candidate to appear at and speak to a meeting of its
1-11     stockholders or members, as applicable, or of the families of its
1-12     stockholders or members.
1-13           (b)  An expenditure under this section is not reportable
1-14     under Chapter 254.
1-15           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-16           SECTION 3.  Section 253.105, Election Code, as added by this
1-17     Act, applies only to the appearance of a candidate at a meeting of
1-18     the stockholders or members of a corporation or labor organization
1-19     or of the families of stockholders or members of a corporation or
1-20     labor organization that is made on or after September 1, 1999.  The
1-21     appearance of a candidate at a meeting of the stockholders or
1-22     members of a corporation or labor organization or of the families
1-23     of stockholders or members of a corporation or labor organization
1-24     that is made before September 1, 1999, is governed by the law in
 2-1     effect at the time the appearance was made, and the former law is
 2-2     continued in effect for that purpose.
 2-3           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-4     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-5     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-6     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-7     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.