Relating to the Regulation of the Practice of Chiropractic

By UherH.B. No. 2175

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the regulation of the practice of chiropractic.

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

SECTION1. Section 5, Chapter 94, Acts of the 51st Legislature, Regular Session, 1949 (Article 4512b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:

Sec.5.The Board shall maintain records regarding each person licensed or registered with the Board. The records must include that name, residence address, and address of each place of business at which the person engages in the practice of chiropractic [preserve a record of its proceedings in a book kept for that purpose, showing name, age, place, and duration of residence of each applicant, the time spent in the study of chiropractic in respective chiropractic schools, together with such other information as the Board may desire to record. Said register shall also show whether applicants were rejected or licensed and shall be primafacie evidence of all matters contained therein. The secretary of the Board shall on May 1st of each year transmit an official copy of said register to the Secretary of State for permanent record, a certified copy of which, with hand and seal of the secretary of said Board or the hand of the Secretary of State under the state seal, shall be admitted in evidence in all courts].

SECTION2. Section 5a(c), Chapter 94, Acts of the 51st Legislature, Regular Session, 1949 (Article 4512b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:

(c)The Board shall bring an action for injunctive proceedings or other civil proceedings as necessary to enforce this Act [A person who violates this section commits an offense. An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor. If it is shown at a trial of an offense under this section that the defendant has previously been convicted under this section, the offense is a felony of the third degree. Each day of violation constitutes a separate offense].

SECTION3. Section 19a, Chapter 94, Acts of the 51st Legislature, Regular Session, 1949 (Article 4512b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is repealed.

SECTION4. (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b) of this section, the punishment for an offense under Section 5a(c) or 19a, Chapter 94, Acts of the 51st Legislature, Regular Session, 1949 (Article 4512b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), regardless of whether the offense is committed before, on, or after the effective date of this Act, is the punishment provided by Section 5a(c), Chapter 94, Acts of the 51st Legislature, Regular Session, 1949 (Article 4512b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), as amended by this Act.

(b)This section does not apply to the punishment of a defendant finally convicted before the effective date of this Act. The punishment for a final conviction that exists on the effective date of this Act is unaffected by this Act.

SECTION5. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.

SECTION6. The importance of this legislation and the crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an emergency and an imperative public necessity that the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.