1-1     By:  Brown                                             S.B. No. 898
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 4, 1999; March 8, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources;
 1-4     March 25, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
 1-5     Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 6, Nays 0; March 25, 1999,
 1-6     sent to printer.)
 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 898                    By:  Brown
 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-9                                   AN ACT
1-10     relating to grants from the water loan assistance fund for certain
1-11     projects.
1-12           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-13           SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 15.102, Water Code, is
1-14     amended to read as follows:
1-15           (b)  The board may use the loan fund [may also be used by the
1-16     board] to provide grants for:
1-17                 (1)  projects that include the provision of [supplying]
1-18     water and wastewater services in economically distressed areas,
1-19     including projects involving retail distribution of those services;
1-20     and
1-21                 (2)  one or more of the following projects, if the
1-22     legislature appropriates money specifically for that purpose:
1-23                       (A)  agricultural water conservation;
1-24                       (B)  weather modification;
1-25                       (C)  brush control; or
1-26                       (D)  production of water in connection with an
1-27     oil or gas operation.
1-28           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-29           (b)  The change in law made by this Act applies only to an
1-30     application for a grant from the water loan assistance fund that is
1-31     filed on or after the effective date of this Act.  A grant
1-32     application that is filed before the effective date of this Act is
1-33     governed by the law in effect immediately before the effective date
1-34     of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
1-35           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-36     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-37     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-38     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-39     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-40                                  * * * * *