By: Bonnen of Galveston H.C.R. No. 135

HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

BE IT RESOLVED by the 86th Legislature of the State of Texas, That the following Joint Rule is adopted and becomes effective immediately upon adoption by the house last adopting this resolution:

JOINT RULE 1

Section 1. ENROLLING BILLS. (a) After a bill has finally passed both houses of the legislature, the officer of the house or senate who is responsible for enrolling the bill shall notify the director of the Legislative Reference Library of the final passage of the bill.

(b) In the order of receiving notice of the final passage of the bill from the officer responsible for enrolling the bill, the director shall assign the bill a Texas Legislative Act number and shall promptly notify the responsible officer of the Texas Legislative Act number assigned to the bill.

(c) The responsible officer shall then enroll the bill, including all proper endorsements, as a Texas Legislative Act and:

(1) shall include the Texas Legislative Act number on the face of the enrolled bill; and

(2) shall not include the originating house's bill number on the face of the bill.

(d) Subsection (c) does not prohibit the responsible officer from including the originating house's bill number in the certification of the bill's passage.

(e) Once a Texas Legislative Act number has been assigned by the director, all future references to the enrolled bill in the journals of each house and in messages to the other house and the governor shall use only the Texas Legislative Act number.

(f) The director shall publish and maintain in the electronic legislative information system the Texas Legislative Act number for each enrolled bill enacted for each session and index those numbers by bill number and, when assigned by the secretary of state, the session law chapter number for each Texas Act.