AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the enforcement of weight limits for motor vehicles by
 1-2     weight enforcement officers.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 621.401, Transportation Code, is amended
 1-5     to read as follows:
 1-6           Sec. 621.401.  Definition.  In this subchapter, "weight
 1-7     enforcement officer" means:
 1-8                 (1)  a license and weight inspector of the Department
 1-9     of Public Safety;
1-10                 (2)  a highway patrol officer;
1-11                 (3)  a sheriff or sheriff's deputy;
1-12                 (4)  a municipal police officer in a municipality with
1-13     a population of:
1-14                       (A)  100,000 or more; or
1-15                       (B)  74,000 or more in a county with a population
1-16     of more than 1.5 million; or
1-17                 (5)  a police officer certified under Section 644.101
1-18     [6, Article 6675d, Revised Statutes].
1-19           SECTION 2.  Section 621.408, Transportation Code, is amended
1-20     to read as follows:
1-21           Sec. 621.408.  Powers of Weight Enforcement Officers.  Except
1-22     for the authority granted to a port-of-entry supervisor or
1-23     inspector by Section 621.409, weight enforcement officers have
1-24     exclusive authority:
 2-1                 (1)  to enforce this subchapter in any area of this
 2-2     state other than in the territory of a municipality with a
 2-3     population of more than:
 2-4                       (A)  100,000; or
 2-5                       (B)  74,000 in a county with a population of more
 2-6     than 1.5 million; and
 2-7                 (2)  to enforce all weight limitations for a vehicle on
 2-8     a state-maintained public highway.
 2-9           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-10           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-11     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-12     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-13     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-14     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
         _______________________________     _______________________________
             President of the Senate              Speaker of the House
               I hereby certify that S.B. No. 844 passed the Senate on
         March 31, 1999, by a viva-voce vote; and that the Senate concurred
         in House amendment on May 29, 1999, by a viva-voce vote.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Secretary of the Senate
               I hereby certify that S.B. No. 844 passed the House, with
         amendment, on May 25, 1999, by a non-record vote.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Chief Clerk of the House
         Approved:
         _______________________________
                     Date
         _______________________________
                   Governor