1-1     By:  Crabb (Senate Sponsor - Cain)                    H.B. No. 2231
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 13, 1999;
 1-3     May 14, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal
 1-4     Justice; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:
 1-5     Yeas 5, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the punishment for the offense of burglary of a rail
 1-9     car.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 30.04, Penal Code, is amended to read as
1-12     follows:
1-13           Sec. 30.04.  BURGLARY OF VEHICLES.  (a)  A person commits an
1-14     offense if, without the effective consent of the owner, he breaks
1-15     into or enters a vehicle or any part of a vehicle with intent to
1-16     commit any felony or theft.
1-17           (b)  For purposes of this section, "enter" means to intrude:
1-18                 (1)  any part of the body; or
1-19                 (2)  any physical object connected with the body.
1-20           (c)  For purposes of this section, a container or trailer
1-21     carried on a rail car is a part of the rail car.
1-22           (d)  An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor
1-23     unless the vehicle or part of the vehicle broken into or entered is
1-24     a rail car, in which event the offense is a state jail felony.
1-25           (e)  It is a defense to prosecution under this section that
1-26     the actor entered a rail car or any part of a rail car and was at
1-27     that time an employee or a representative of employees exercising a
1-28     right under the Railway Labor Act (45 U.S.C. Section 151 et seq.).
1-29           SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
1-30     only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
1-31     Act.  For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before
1-32     the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
1-33     before the effective date.
1-34           (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
1-35     Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
1-36     and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
1-37           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-38           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-39     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-40     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-41     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-42     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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