1-1     By:  Nixon                                             S.B. No. 132
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed January 7, 1999; January 28, 1999,
 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on State Affairs;
 1-4     March 8, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
 1-5     Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 6, Nays 0; March 8, 1999,
 1-6     sent to printer.)
 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 132                    By:  Nixon
 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-9                                   AN ACT
1-10     relating to the requirements for the issuance of special license
1-11     plates or vehicle parking placards to persons with disabilities.
1-12           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-13           SECTION 1.  Subsection (e), Section 502.253, Transportation
1-14     Code, is amended to read as follows:   
1-15           (e)  The first application for registration must be
1-16     accompanied by a written statement of a physician licensed to
1-17     practice medicine in this state or a state adjacent to this state
1-18     certifying to the department that the person making the application
1-19     or on whose behalf the application is made is legally blind or has
1-20     a mobility problem that substantially impairs the person's ability
1-21     to ambulate.  The statement must include a certification of whether
1-22     a mobility problem, if applicable, is temporary or permanent.  A
1-23     written statement from a physician is not required as acceptable
1-24     medical proof if:
1-25                 (1)  the person with a disability:
1-26                       (A)  has had a limb, hand, or foot amputated; or
1-27                       (B)  must use a wheelchair; and
1-28                 (2)  the applicant and the county assessor-collector
1-29     issuing the special license plates execute an affidavit attesting
1-30     to the person's disability.
1-31           SECTION 2.  Subdivision (5), Section 681.001, Transportation
1-32     Code, is amended to read as follows:
1-33                 (5)  "Mobility problem that substantially impairs a
1-34     person's ability to ambulate" means that the person:
1-35                       (A)  cannot walk 200 feet without stopping to
1-36     rest;
1-37                       (B)  cannot walk without the use of or assistance
1-38     from an assistance device, including a brace, a cane, a crutch,
1-39     another person, or a prosthetic device;
1-40                       (C)  cannot ambulate without a wheelchair or
1-41     similar device;
1-42                       (D)  is restricted by lung disease to the extent
1-43     that the person's forced respiratory expiratory volume for one
1-44     second, measured by spirometry, is less than one liter, or the
1-45     arterial oxygen tension is less than 60 millimeters of mercury on
1-46     room air at rest;
1-47                       (E)  uses portable oxygen;
1-48                       (F)  has a cardiac condition to the extent that
1-49     the person's functional limitations are classified in severity as
1-50     Class III or Class IV according to standards set by the American
1-51     Heart Association;
1-52                       (G)  is severely limited in the ability to walk
1-53     because of an arthritic, neurological, or orthopedic condition; or
1-54                       (H)  has another debilitating condition that, in
1-55     the opinion of a physician licensed to practice medicine in this
1-56     state or a state adjacent to this state, limits or impairs the
1-57     person's ability to walk.
1-58           SECTION 3.  Subsection (c), Section 681.003, Transportation
1-59     Code, is amended to read as follows:
1-60           (c)  The first application must be accompanied by a notarized
1-61     written statement or written prescription of a physician licensed
1-62     to practice medicine in this state or a state adjacent to this
1-63     state certifying and providing evidence acceptable to the
1-64     department that the person making the application or on whose
 2-1     behalf the application is made is legally blind or has a mobility
 2-2     problem that substantially impairs the person's ability to
 2-3     ambulate.  The statement or prescription must include a
 2-4     certification of whether the disability is temporary or permanent.
 2-5     The department shall determine a person's eligibility based on
 2-6     evidence provided by the applicant establishing legal blindness or
 2-7     mobility impairment.
 2-8           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-9     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-10     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-11     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-12     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-13     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-14     passage, and it is so enacted.
2-15                                  * * * * *