By McCall                                             H.B. No. 1979
         76R5152 DWS-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to parking privileges for the vehicle of a former prisoner
 1-3     of war or the surviving spouse of a former prisoner of war.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 681.008, Transportation Code, is amended
 1-6     to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 681.008.  PARKING PRIVILEGES:  CERTAIN VETERANS [WITH
 1-8     DISABILITIES; CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENTS].  A vehicle
 1-9     on which license plates issued under Section 502.254, [or] 502.255,
1-10     or 502.257 are displayed is exempt from the payment of a parking
1-11     fee, including a fee collected through a parking meter, charged by
1-12     a governmental authority other than a branch of the federal
1-13     government, when being operated by or for the transportation of:
1-14                 (1)  the person who registered the vehicle under
1-15     Section 502.254(a), [or] 502.255, or 502.257; or
1-16                 (2)  a person described in Section 502.254(b) if the
1-17     vehicle is registered under that subsection.
1-18           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-23     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-24     passage, and it is so enacted.