TITLE: Relating to oversize or overweight vehicles transporting livestock feed, grain, or grain by-products.

SUMMARY: Relating to oversize or overweight vehicles transporting livestock feed, grain, or grain by-products.

FULL TEXT:
AN ACT relating to oversize or overweight vehicles transporting livestock feed, grain, or grain by-products. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: SECTION 1. Section 621.508(a), Transportation Code, is amended to read as follows: (a) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution of, or an action under Subchapter Ffor, the offense of operating a vehicle with a single axle weight or tandem axle weight heavier than the axle weight authorized by law that at the time of the offense the vehicle: (1) had a single axle weight or tandem axle weight that was not heavier than the axle weight authorized by law plus 12 percent; (2) was loaded with:(A) timber, pulp wood, wood chips, [or] cotton, livestock, livestock feed, grain, or grain by-products; or (B) other agricultural products that are: (i) [(A)] in their natural state; and (ii) [(B)] being transported from the place of production to the place of first marketing or first processing; and (3) was not being operated on a portion of the national system of interstate and defense highways. SECTION 2. Section 621.508(a), Transportation Code, as amended by this Act, applies only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act. An offense committed before the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the offense was committed, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For purposes of this section, an offense was committed before the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurred before that date. SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2017.