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.