By:  Carona                                            S.B. No. 424
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the examination required for certification as a court
 1-2     reporter.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 52.023, Government Code,
 1-5     is amended to read as follows:
 1-6           (b)  Part A consists of five minutes of two-voice dictation
 1-7     of questions and answers given at 225 words per minute, five
 1-8     minutes of dictation of jury charges given at 200 words per minute,
 1-9     and five minutes of dictation of selected literary material given
1-10     at 180 words per minute.  Each applicant must personally take down
1-11     the test material, either in writing or in voice, and must prepare
1-12     [type] a transcript of the material taken down.  [The applicant may
1-13     use either a manual or an electric typewriter.]  The minimum
1-14     passing grade for each section of Part A is 95 percent.  A
1-15     dictionary may be used during Part A.  Each applicant has three
1-16     hours to complete the transcription of Part A.  If an applicant
1-17     finishes before the three hours have elapsed, the applicant may
1-18     review the transcript but may use only the test material taken down
1-19     by that applicant to review the transcript.  An error is charged
1-20     for:
1-21                 (1)  each wrong word;
1-22                 (2)  each omitted word;
1-23                 (3)  each word added by the applicant that was not
1-24     dictated;
 2-1                 (4)  each contraction interpreted by the applicant as
 2-2     two words;
 2-3                 (5)  two words interpreted by the applicant as a
 2-4     contraction;
 2-5                 (6)  each misplaced word;
 2-6                 (7)  each misplaced period that materially alters the
 2-7     sense of a group of words or a sentence;
 2-8                 (8)  each misspelled word;
 2-9                 (9)  the use of the plural or singular if the opposite
2-10     was dictated; and
2-11                 (10)  each wrong number.
2-12           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-13     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-14     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-15     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-16     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-17     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-18     passage, and it is so enacted.