By:  Madla                                            S.B. No. 1525
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the practice of dietetics.
 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-3           SECTION 1.  Section 2, Licensed Dietitian Act (Article 4512h,
 1-4     Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by amending Subdivision
 1-5     (10) and adding Subdivision (13) to read as follows:
 1-6                 (10)  "Nutrition services" means:
 1-7                       (A)  assessing the nutritional needs of
 1-8     individuals and groups and determining resources and constraints in
 1-9     the practice;
1-10                       (B)  establishing priorities, goals, and
1-11     objectives that meet nutritional needs and are consistent with
1-12     available resources and constraints;
1-13                       (C)  providing nutrition counseling in health and
1-14     disease;
1-15                       (D)  developing, implementing, and managing
1-16     nutritional care systems; [or]
1-17                       (E)  evaluating, making changes in, and
1-18     maintaining appropriate standards of quality in food and
1-19     nutritional care services; or
1-20                       (F)  providing medical nutrition therapy or a
1-21     component of medical nutrition therapy.
1-22                 (13)  "Medical nutrition therapy" means nutrition
1-23     assessment, therapy, and counseling services furnished by a
1-24     licensed dietitian.
 2-1           SECTION 2.  Section 6, Licensed Dietitian Act (Article 4512h,
 2-2     Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by adding Subsection (d)
 2-3     to read as follows:
 2-4           (d)  The board may adopt procedures and standards necessary
 2-5     to determine the qualifications of a person licensed under this Act
 2-6     to provide nutrition services under a law administered by another
 2-7     state agency.  Notwithstanding any other law or rule, the board is
 2-8     the only state agency authorized to determine the qualifications of
 2-9     a person licensed under this Act to provide those services.
2-10           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-11           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-12     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-13     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-14     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-15     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.