By Ogden                                               S.B. No. 936
         76R7409 ESH-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to certain expenditures by corporations and labor
 1-3     organizations for nonpartisan voter registration or
 1-4     get-out-the-vote campaigns; providing a criminal penalty.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 253.099, Election Code, is amended to
 1-7     read as follows:
 1-8           Sec. 253.099.  NONPARTISAN VOTER REGISTRATION AND
 1-9     GET-OUT-THE-VOTE CAMPAIGNS.  (a)  Except as provided by Subsection
1-10     (b), a [A] corporation or labor organization may make one or more
1-11     expenditures to finance nonpartisan voter registration and
1-12     get-out-the-vote campaigns aimed at its stockholders or members, as
1-13     applicable, or at the families of its stockholders or members.
1-14           (b)  A corporation or labor organization may not make an
1-15     expenditure to finance a nonpartisan voter registration or
1-16     get-out-the-vote campaign by contributing money to a political
1-17     committee.
1-18           (c)  An expenditure under Subsection (a) [this section] is
1-19     not reportable under Chapter 254.
1-20           (d)  A person who violates Subsection (b) commits an offense.
1-21     An offense under this section is a felony of the third degree.
1-22           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-23           SECTION 3.  Section 253.099, Election Code, as amended by
1-24     this Act, applies only to an expenditure by a corporation or labor
 2-1     organization for a nonpartisan voter registration or
 2-2     get-out-the-vote campaign that is made on or after September 1,
 2-3     1999.  An expenditure by a corporation or labor organization for a
 2-4     nonpartisan voter registration or get-out-the-vote campaign that is
 2-5     made before September 1, 1999, is governed by the law in effect at
 2-6     the time the expenditure was made, and the former law is continued
 2-7     in effect for that purpose.
 2-8           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-9     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-10     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-11     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-12     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.