1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the eligibility of certain persons to hold a driver's
 1-3     license.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 521.201, Transportation Code, is amended
 1-6     to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 521.201.  LICENSE INELIGIBILITY IN GENERAL.  The
 1-8     department may not issue any license to a person who:
 1-9                 (1)  is under 15 years of age;
1-10                 (2)  is under 18 years of age unless the person
1-11     complies with the requirements imposed by Section 521.204;
1-12                 (3)  is shown to be addicted to the use of alcohol, a
1-13     controlled substance, or another drug that renders a person
1-14     incapable of driving;
1-15                 (4)  holds a driver's license issued by this state or
1-16     another state or country that is revoked, canceled, or under
1-17     suspension;
1-18                 (5)  has been determined by a judgment of a court to be
1-19     totally incapacitated or incapacitated to act as the operator of a
1-20     motor vehicle [mentally incompetent] unless the person has, by the
1-21     date of the license application, been:
1-22                       (A)  restored to capacity [competency] by
1-23     judicial decree; or
1-24                       (B)  released from a hospital for the mentally
 2-1     incapacitated [incompetent] on a certificate by the superintendent
 2-2     or administrator of the hospital that the person has regained
 2-3     capacity [is competent];
 2-4                 (6)  the department determines to be afflicted with a
 2-5     mental or physical disability or disease that prevents the person
 2-6     from exercising reasonable and ordinary control over a motor
 2-7     vehicle while operating the vehicle on a highway, except that a
 2-8     person may not be refused a license because of a physical defect if
 2-9     common experience shows that the defect does not incapacitate a
2-10     person from safely operating a motor vehicle;
2-11                 (7)  has been reported by a court under Section 729.003
2-12     for failure to appear or for default in payment of a fine unless
2-13     the court has filed an additional report on final disposition of
2-14     the case; or
2-15                 (8)  has been reported by a court for failure to appear
2-16     or default in payment of a fine for a misdemeanor that is not
2-17     covered under Subdivision (7) and that is punishable by a fine
2-18     only, including a misdemeanor under a municipal ordinance,
2-19     committed by a person who was under 17 years of age at the time of
2-20     the alleged offense, unless the court has filed an additional
2-21     report on final disposition of the case.
2-22           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-23           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-25     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-26     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-27     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
         _______________________________     _______________________________
             President of the Senate              Speaker of the House
               I certify that H.B. No. 3342 was passed by the House on May
         11, 1999, by a non-record vote.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Chief Clerk of the House
               I certify that H.B. No. 3342 was passed by the Senate on May
         26, 1999, by a viva-voce vote.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Secretary of the Senate
         APPROVED:  _____________________
                            Date
                    _____________________
                          Governor