By:  West                                              S.B. No. 258
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the applicability of the Hazard Communication Act to
 1-2     certain inmates of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Chapter 502, Health and Safety Code, is amended
 1-5     by adding Section 502.020 to read as follows:
 1-6           Sec. 502.020.  WORKPLACE SAFETY FOR INMATES.  A person
 1-7     imprisoned in a facility operated by or for the Texas Department of
 1-8     Criminal Justice is not an employee for the purposes of this
 1-9     chapter.  The Texas Department of Criminal Justice shall provide a
1-10     person imprisoned in a facility operated by or for the Texas
1-11     Department of Criminal Justice the protections from exposure to
1-12     hazardous chemicals in the workplace as provided for in this
1-13     chapter.
1-14           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-15     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-16     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-17     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-18     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-19     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-20     passage, and it is so enacted.