AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
C.S.S.B. 139 designates a portion of U.S. Highway 80 as the Sergeant Travis Earl Watkins Memorial Highway.
Travis Earl Watkins (September 5, 1920 – September 3, 1950) was a Sergeant in the United States Army who was raised in Troup, Texas. He joined the Army in 1939 and received a Bronze Star during World War II. For his actions in the Korean War, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on February 16, 1951, six months after his death. He died two days prior to his 30th birthday and is laid to rest in the Gladewater Memorial Cemetery in Gladewater, Texas. Every year since 2008, a memorial ceremony has been held at his grave on the Saturday closest to National Medal of Honor Day (March 25). The transport ship, United States Naval Ship Watkins, was commissioned in his honor and is still in service today.
C.S.S.B. 139 amends current law relating to the designation of a segment of U.S. Highway 80 as the Sergeant Travis E. Watkins Memorial Highway.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency.
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Subchapter B, Chapter 255, Transportation Code, by adding Section 225.091, as follows:
Sec. 225.091. SERGEANT TRAVIS E. WATKINS MEMORIAL HIGHWAY. (a) Designates the portion of U.S. Highway 80 from U.S. Highway 271 in Gregg County to the eastern municipal boundary of Big Sandy in Upshur County as the Sergeant Travis E. Watkins Memorial Highway. Provides that the designation is in addition to any other designation.
(b) Requires the Texas Department of Transportation, subject to Section 225.021(c) (relating to the funding of the design, construction, and erection of a marker) to design and construct markers indicating the designation as the Sergeant Travis E. Watkins Memorial Highway and any other appropriate information and to erect a marker at each end of the highway and at appropriate intermediate sites along the highway.
SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 2013.