1-1     By:  Thompson (Senate Sponsor - West)                 H.B. No. 2535
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 19, 1999;
 1-3     April 20, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Jurisprudence; May 11, 1999, reported favorably by the following
 1-5     vote:  Yeas 3, Nays 0; May 11, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the dismissal of certain offenses involving the failure
 1-9     to maintain financial responsibility for a motor vehicle.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 601.193, Transportation Code, is amended
1-12     to read as follows:
1-13           Sec. 601.193.  DEFENSE:  FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN EFFECT
1-14     AT TIME OF ALLEGED OFFENSE.  (a)  It is a defense to prosecution
1-15     under Section 601.191 or 601.195 that the person charged produces
1-16     to the court one of the documents listed in Section 601.053(a) that
1-17     was valid at the time that the offense is alleged to have occurred.
1-18           (b)  After the court verifies a document produced under
1-19     Subsection (a), the court shall dismiss the charge.
1-20           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-21     applies only to an offense that occurs on or after that date.  An
1-22     offense that occurs before that date is covered by the law in
1-23     effect at the time the offense was committed, and the former law is
1-24     continued in effect for that purpose.  For purposes of this
1-25     section, an offense is committed before the effective date of this
1-26     Act if any element of the offense occurs before that date.
1-27           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-28     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-29     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-30     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-31     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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