1-1     By:  Nixon                                             S.B. No. 183
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed January 19, 1999; January 28, 1999,
 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on State Affairs;
 1-4     March 8, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 7,
 1-5     Nays 0; March 8, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the acceptance of gifts by certain state agencies.
 1-9           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-10           SECTION 1.  Section 575.003, Government Code, is amended to
1-11     read as follows:
1-12           Sec. 575.003.  ACCEPTANCE OF GIFT BY STATE AGENCY GOVERNING
1-13     BOARD.  A state agency that has a governing board may accept a gift
1-14     only if the agency has the authority to accept the gift and a
1-15     majority of the board, in an open meeting, acknowledges the
1-16     acceptance of [approves accepting] the gift not later than the 90th
1-17     day after the date the gift is accepted.
1-18           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-19     applies only to a gift accepted by a state agency on or after that
1-20     date.  A gift accepted by a state agency before the effective date
1-21     of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the gift
1-22     was accepted, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
1-23           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-25     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-26     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-27     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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