By Thompson                                           H.B. No. 2535
         76R8145 DRH-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the dismissal of certain offenses involving the failure
 1-3     to maintain financial responsibility for a motor vehicle.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 601.193, Transportation Code, is amended
 1-6     to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 601.193.  DEFENSE:  FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN EFFECT
 1-8     AT TIME OF ALLEGED OFFENSE.  (a)  It is a defense to prosecution
 1-9     under Section 601.191 or 601.195 that the person charged produces
1-10     to the court one of the documents listed in Section 601.053(a) that
1-11     was valid at the time that the offense is alleged to have occurred.
1-12           (b)  After the court verifies a document produced under
1-13     Subsection (a), the court shall dismiss the charge.
1-14           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-15     applies only to an offense that occurs on or after that date.  An
1-16     offense that occurs before that date is covered by the law in
1-17     effect at the time the offense was committed, and the former law is
1-18     continued in effect for that purpose.  For purposes of this
1-19     section, an offense is committed before the effective date of this
1-20     Act if any element of the offense occurs before that date.
1-21           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-1     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.