By:  Moncrief                                          S.B. No. 332
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to authorizing institutions of higher education to impose
 1-2     a fee to support Washington, D.C., internships and abolishing the
 1-3     Texas-Washington, D.C., Intern Scholarship Program.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter E, Chapter 54, Education Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Section 54.5134 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 54.5134.  WASHINGTON, D.C., INTERNSHIP EDUCATION FEE.
 1-8     (a)  The governing board of an institution of higher education may
 1-9     charge and collect from each student registered at the institution
1-10     a fee in an amount not to exceed $1 for each semester or summer
1-11     session if imposition of the fee is approved by a majority vote of
1-12     the students of the institution participating in a general student
1-13     election held for that purpose.
1-14           (b)  The amount of the fee imposed at an institution may be
1-15     increased from one academic year to the next by more than 10
1-16     percent only if approved by a majority vote of the students of the
1-17     institution participating in a general student election held for
1-18     that purpose.
1-19           (c)  Revenue from a fee imposed under this section shall be
1-20     deposited in a fund established by the institution outside the
1-21     state treasury and identified as the institution's Washington,
1-22     D.C., internship financial aid fund.  Money in the fund may be used
1-23     only to assist a student participating in a Washington, D.C.,
1-24     internship program administered, sponsored, or approved by the
 2-1     institution.
 2-2           (d)  The fund shall be used in accordance with guidelines
 2-3     jointly developed by the student governing body of the institution
 2-4     and the administration of the institution.  If the institution does
 2-5     not have a student governing body, the president may appoint a
 2-6     committee of students to assist with the development of the
 2-7     guidelines.
 2-8           (e)  A fee imposed under this section may not be considered
 2-9     in determining the maximum amount of student services fees that may
2-10     be charged a student enrolled at the institution under Section
2-11     54.503(b).
2-12           SECTION 2.  (a)  Subchapter L, Chapter 56, Education Code, is
2-13     repealed.
2-14           (b)  The repeal made by this section does not affect a grant
2-15     awarded under that subchapter before the effective date of this
2-16     section or the completion of the internship pursuant to the grant,
2-17     and the repealed law remains in effect for that purpose.
2-18           SECTION 3.  (a)  Section 1 of this Act applies beginning with
2-19     the 1999 fall semester.
2-20           (b)  Section 2 of this Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-21           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-25     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-26     and that this Act take effect and be in force according to its
 3-1     terms, and it is so enacted.