By: Nixon S.B. No. 132
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to the requirements for the issuance of special license
1-2 plates or vehicle parking placards to persons with disabilities.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Subsection (e), Section 502.253, Transportation
1-5 Code, is amended to read as follows:
1-6 (e) The first application for registration must be
1-7 accompanied by a written statement of a physician licensed to
1-8 practice medicine in this state or a state adjacent to this state,
1-9 or authorized by applicable law to practice medicine in a hospital
1-10 or other health facility of the Veterans Administration, certifying
1-11 to the department that the person making the application or on
1-12 whose behalf the application is made is legally blind or has a
1-13 mobility problem that substantially impairs the person's ability to
1-14 ambulate. The statement must include a certification of whether a
1-15 mobility problem, if applicable, is temporary or permanent. A
1-16 written statement from a physician is not required as acceptable
1-17 medical 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. Subdivision (5), Section 681.001, Transportation
2-1 Code, is amended to read as follows:
2-2 (5) "Mobility problem that substantially impairs a
2-3 person's ability to ambulate" means that the person:
2-4 (A) cannot walk 200 feet without stopping to
2-5 rest;
2-6 (B) cannot walk without the use of or assistance
2-7 from an assistance device, including a brace, a cane, a crutch,
2-8 another person, or a prosthetic device;
2-9 (C) cannot ambulate without a wheelchair or
2-10 similar device;
2-11 (D) is restricted by lung disease to the extent
2-12 that the person's forced respiratory expiratory volume for one
2-13 second, measured by spirometry, is less than one liter, or the
2-14 arterial oxygen tension is less than 60 millimeters of mercury on
2-15 room air at rest;
2-16 (E) uses portable oxygen;
2-17 (F) has a cardiac condition to the extent that
2-18 the person's functional limitations are classified in severity as
2-19 Class III or Class IV according to standards set by the American
2-20 Heart Association;
2-21 (G) is severely limited in the ability to walk
2-22 because of an arthritic, neurological, or orthopedic condition; or
2-23 (H) has another debilitating condition that, in
2-24 the opinion of a physician licensed to practice medicine in this
2-25 state or a state adjacent to this state, or authorized by
2-26 applicable law to practice medicine in a hospital or other health
3-1 facility of the Veterans Administration, limits or impairs the
3-2 person's ability to walk.
3-3 SECTION 3. Subsection (c), Section 681.003, Transportation
3-4 Code, is amended to read as follows:
3-5 (c) The first application must be accompanied by a notarized
3-6 written statement or written prescription of a physician licensed
3-7 to practice medicine in this state or a state adjacent to this
3-8 state, or authorized by applicable law to practice medicine in a
3-9 hospital or other health facility of the Veterans Administration,
3-10 certifying and providing evidence acceptable to the department that
3-11 the person making the application or on whose behalf the
3-12 application is made is legally blind or has a mobility problem that
3-13 substantially impairs the person's ability to ambulate. The
3-14 statement or prescription must include a certification of whether
3-15 the disability is temporary or permanent. The department shall
3-16 determine a person's eligibility based on evidence provided by the
3-17 applicant establishing legal blindness or mobility impairment.
3-18 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
3-19 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-20 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-21 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-22 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-23 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-24 passage, and it is so enacted.