1-1     By:  Naishtat (Senate Sponsor - Wentworth)            H.B. No. 3342
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 11, 1999;
 1-3     May 12, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on State
 1-4     Affairs; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:
 1-5     Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the eligibility of certain persons to hold a driver's
 1-9     license.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 521.201, Transportation Code, is amended
1-12     to read as follows:
1-13           Sec. 521.201.  LICENSE INELIGIBILITY IN GENERAL.  The
1-14     department may not issue any license to a person who:
1-15                 (1)  is under 15 years of age;
1-16                 (2)  is under 18 years of age unless the person
1-17     complies with the requirements imposed by Section 521.204;
1-18                 (3)  is shown to be addicted to the use of alcohol, a
1-19     controlled substance, or another drug that renders a person
1-20     incapable of driving;
1-21                 (4)  holds a driver's license issued by this state or
1-22     another state or country that is revoked, canceled, or under
1-23     suspension;
1-24                 (5)  has been determined by a judgment of a court to be
1-25     totally incapacitated or incapacitated to act as the operator of a
1-26     motor vehicle [mentally incompetent] unless the person has, by the
1-27     date of the license application, been:
1-28                       (A)  restored to capacity [competency] by
1-29     judicial decree; or
1-30                       (B)  released from a hospital for the mentally
1-31     incapacitated [incompetent] on a certificate by the superintendent
1-32     or administrator of the hospital that the person has regained
1-33     capacity [is competent];
1-34                 (6)  the department determines to be afflicted with a
1-35     mental or physical disability or disease that prevents the person
1-36     from exercising reasonable and ordinary control over a motor
1-37     vehicle while operating the vehicle on a highway, except that a
1-38     person may not be refused a license because of a physical defect if
1-39     common experience shows that the defect does not incapacitate a
1-40     person from safely operating a motor vehicle;
1-41                 (7)  has been reported by a court under Section 729.003
1-42     for failure to appear or for default in payment of a fine unless
1-43     the court has filed an additional report on final disposition of
1-44     the case; or
1-45                 (8)  has been reported by a court for failure to appear
1-46     or default in payment of a fine for a misdemeanor that is not
1-47     covered under Subdivision (7) and that is punishable by a fine
1-48     only, including a misdemeanor under a municipal ordinance,
1-49     committed by a person who was under 17 years of age at the time of
1-50     the alleged offense, unless the court has filed an additional
1-51     report on final disposition of the case.
1-52           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-53           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-54     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-55     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-56     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-57     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-58                                  * * * * *