Amend HB 9 (house committee printing) on page 3, between lines 18 and 19, by inserting the following appropriately designated subsection:

(____)  Out of money appropriated by Subsection (a) of this section, the amount of $500,000 may be used only to provide funding for grants to counties adjacent to this state's international border with Mexico and municipalities within those counties to cover those counties' and municipalities' costs to house processed and quarantined COVID-positive asylum seekers during the state fiscal biennium beginning September 1, 2021.