86R4448 MAW-F

By: González of El Paso H.B. No. 588

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the use of certain language in statutes or resolutions.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Sections 392.002(a) and (b), Government Code, are amended to read as follows:

(a) The legislature and the Texas Legislative Council are directed to avoid using the following terms and phrases in any new statute or resolution and to change those terms and phrases used in any existing statute or resolution as sections including those terms and phrases are otherwise amended by law:

(1) disabled;

(2) developmentally disabled;

(3) mentally disabled;

(4) mentally ill;

(5) mentally retarded;

(6) handicapped;

(7) cripple; [and]

(8) crippled;

(9) hearing impaired;

(10) hearing loss;

(11) audiologically impaired; and

(12) speech impaired.

(b) In enacting or revising statutes or resolutions, the legislature and the Texas Legislative Council are directed to replace, as appropriate, terms and phrases listed by Subsection (a) with the following preferred phrases or appropriate variations of those phrases:

(1) "persons with disabilities";

(2) "persons with developmental disabilities";

(3) "persons with mental illness"; [and]

(4) "persons with intellectual disabilities";

(5) "persons who are deaf"; and

(6) "persons who are hard of hearing."

SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.