By Wise                                               H.B. No. 3665
         76R7046 CAG-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the provision of post-secondary education and training
 1-3     services to be offered by the Texas Commission for the Blind.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 91, Human Resources Code,
 1-6     is amended by adding Section 91.029 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 91.029.  POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION AND TRAINING.  (a)
 1-8     The commission shall provide services to visually handicapped
 1-9     persons to ensure that each person has access to appropriate
1-10     post-secondary education and training.
1-11           (b)  In providing services under this section, the commission
1-12     may provide a visually handicapped person with a grant to cover
1-13     tuition, fees, supplies, room, board, and other necessary expenses
1-14     to attend an institution of higher education or other educational
1-15     or training program and may provide any ancillary service related
1-16     to the person's attendance at an institution or program offering
1-17     post-secondary education or training, including the provision of
1-18     transportation.
1-19           (c)  The commission may contract with the Texas
1-20     Rehabilitation Commission or any other state agency or institution
1-21     to provide any service described by this section.
1-22           SECTION 2.  Not later than January 1, 2000, the Texas
1-23     Commission for the Blind shall:
1-24                 (1)  adopt rules to implement Section 91.029, Human
 2-1     Resources Code, as added by this Act; and
 2-2                 (2)  report to the governor, the lieutenant governor,
 2-3     the speaker of the house, and the legislature on the actions taken
 2-4     by the commission to implement the provisions of this Act.
 2-5           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-6     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-7     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-8     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-9     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-10     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-11     passage, and it is so enacted.