By Nixon                                               S.B. No. 132
         76R1583 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 licensed to
 1-9     practice medicine in this state or a state adjacent to this state
1-10     certifying to the department that the person making the
1-11     application or on whose behalf the application is made is legally
1-12     blind or has a mobility problem that substantially impairs the
1-13     person's ability to ambulate.  The statement must include a
1-14     certification of whether a mobility problem, if applicable, is
1-15     temporary or permanent.  A written statement from a physician is
1-16     not required as acceptable medical proof if:
1-17                 (1)  the person with a disability:
1-18                       (A)  has had a limb, hand, or foot amputated; or
1-19                       (B)  must use a wheelchair; and
1-20                 (2)  the applicant and the county assessor-collector
1-21     issuing the special license plates execute an affidavit attesting
1-22     to the person's disability.
1-23           SECTION 2.  Section 681.003(c), Transportation Code, is
1-24     amended to read as follows:
 2-1           (c)  The first application must be accompanied by a notarized
 2-2     written statement or written prescription of a physician licensed
 2-3     to practice medicine in this state or a state adjacent to this
 2-4     state certifying and providing evidence acceptable to the
 2-5     department that the person making the application or on whose
 2-6     behalf the application is made is legally blind or has a mobility
 2-7     problem that substantially impairs the person's ability to
 2-8     ambulate.  The statement or prescription must include a
 2-9     certification of whether the disability is temporary or permanent.
2-10     The department shall determine a person's eligibility based on
2-11     evidence provided by the applicant establishing legal blindness or
2-12     mobility impairment.
2-13           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-14     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-15     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-16     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-17     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-18     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-19     passage, and it is so enacted.