1-1     By:  Gallego (Senate Sponsor - Harris)                H.B. No. 3418
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 5, 1999;
 1-3     May 6, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Administration; May 11, 1999, reported favorably by the following
 1-5     vote:  Yeas 4, Nays 0; May 11, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the administration of teleconferencing technology
 1-9     within the judiciary.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 73.003(e), Government Code, is amended to
1-12     read as follows:
1-13           (e)  At the discretion of its chief justice, [and with the
1-14     consent of the parties or their attorneys,] a court to which a case
1-15     is transferred may hear oral argument through the use of
1-16     teleconferencing technology as provided by Section 22.302.  The
1-17     court and the parties or their attorneys may participate in oral
1-18     argument from any location through the use of teleconferencing
1-19     technology.  The actual and necessary expenses of the court in
1-20     hearing an oral argument through the use of teleconferencing
1-21     technology shall be paid by the state from funds appropriated for
1-22     the transfer of case, as specified in Subsection (d).
1-23           SECTION 2.  Section 22.302(a), Government Code, is amended to
1-24     read as follows:
1-25           (a)  At the discretion of its chief justice or presiding
1-26     judge, [and with the consent of the parties or their attorneys,]
1-27     the supreme court, the court of criminal appeals, or a court of
1-28     appeals may order that oral argument be presented [hear oral
1-29     argument] through the use of teleconferencing technology.  The
1-30     court and the parties or their attorneys may participate in oral
1-31     argument from any location through the use of teleconferencing
1-32     technology.
1-33           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-34           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-35     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-36     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-37     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-38     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-39                                  * * * * *