By Haywood                                              S.B. No. 67
         76R2446 DRH-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the requirements for the issuance of special license
 1-3     plates or vehicle parking placards to persons with disabilities.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 502.253(e), Transportation Code, is
 1-6     amended to read as follows:            
 1-7           (e)  The first application for registration must be
 1-8     accompanied by a written statement of a physician who is licensed
 1-9     to practice medicine in this state or is on active duty in the
1-10     armed forces of the United States certifying to the department that
1-11     the person making the  application or on whose behalf the
1-12     application is made is legally blind or has a mobility problem that
1-13     substantially impairs the person's ability to ambulate.  The
1-14     statement must include a certification of whether a mobility
1-15     problem, if applicable, is temporary or permanent.  A written
1-16     statement from a physician is not required as acceptable medical
1-17     proof if:
1-18                 (1)  the person with a disability:
1-19                       (A)  has had a limb, hand, or foot amputated; or
1-20                       (B)  must use a wheelchair; and
1-21                 (2)  the applicant and the county assessor-collector
1-22     issuing the special license plates execute an affidavit attesting
1-23     to the person's disability.
1-24           SECTION 2.  Section 681.003(c), Transportation Code, is
 2-1     amended to read as follows:
 2-2           (c)  The first application must be accompanied by a notarized
 2-3     written statement or written prescription of a physician who is
 2-4     licensed to practice medicine in this state or is on active duty in
 2-5     the armed forces of the United States certifying and providing
 2-6     evidence acceptable to the department that the person making the
 2-7     application or on whose behalf the application is made is legally
 2-8     blind or has a mobility problem that substantially impairs the
 2-9     person's ability to ambulate.  The statement or prescription must
2-10     include a certification of whether the disability is temporary or
2-11     permanent.  The department shall determine a person's eligibility
2-12     based on evidence provided by the applicant establishing legal
2-13     blindness or mobility impairment.
2-14           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-15     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-16     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-17     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-18     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-19     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-20     passage, and it is so enacted.