0~ TEXAS 

Konorable Joe 8. Roberts, Chairman Opinion No. ~-378 

Texas Industrial Accident Board 

State Insurance Building Re: Effective date of Senate 

Austin, Texas f8fOl Bill 64, Acts of the 

Legislature, Regular 

Dear Mr. Roberts: Session 1969. 

Your request for an opinion reads as follows: 

"Senate Bill 64, 61st Legislature, Regular 

Session, 1969 was signed by the Governor of the 

State of Texas ,on March 18, 1969 and filed for 

record in the office of the Secretary of State 

on March.l8,,1969. 

"The Board respectfully requests an opinion 

of the language contained in Section 16 of Senate 

Bill 64 which states:., "This act (shall) take effect and be in force sixty (60) days from and 

after its passage. . .' 

,* The Board and many parties wish to know the 

specific day, hour, minute and second in the month 

of Ray in which Senate Bill 64 becomes effective." 

Section 39 of Article III of the Constitution of 

Texas provides: 

"No law passed by the Legislature, except the 

general appropriation' act, shall take effect or go 

into force until ninety days after the adjournment 

of the session at which it was enacted, unless 

in case of an emergency, which emergency must be 

expressed in a preamble or in the body of the act, 

the Legislature shall, by a vote of two-thirds of 

all the members elected to each House, otherwise 

direct; said vote to be taken by yeas and nays, 

and entered upon the journals." 

Under the above quoted constitutional prohibition, 

the legislature in prescribing an effective date, prior to the 

- 1870 - 
Hon. Joe B. Roberts, page 2 (M-278) 

expiration of ninety days after adjournment, must pass the 

act by a vote of two-thirds of all the members of each house, 

and which vote is to be entered upon the journals. 

Chorn, 136 Tex. 209, 150 S.W.Zd 70 (1941); Popham v. %$%&on, 

mex. 615, 51 S.W.2d 680 (1932); Caples v. Cole, 129 . 

370, 102 S.W.2d 173 (1937). 

Senate Bill 64 passed the Senate on February 18 by 

a record vote of thirty yeas and no nays, which vote was 

recorded in the Senate journal on page 206. Senate Bill 64 

passed the House of Representatives by a record vote of one 

hundred forty-seven yeas and one nay on March 6, which vote 

was recorded in the House journal at page 472. The above 

recorded votes constitute two-thirds of all of the members 

of each house within the meaning of Secti,on 39 of Article III 

of the Constitution of Texas. 

The provisions of said Section 39 having been complied 

with, Senate Bill 64 will become effective in accordance with 

the provisions of the 'emergency clause which reads, in part, as 

follows: 

" . . . [TJhis Act shall take effect and be 

in force sixty (60) days from and after its passage. . ." 

In view of the foregoing Senate Bill 64 will take 

effect and be in force sixty days from and after its passage. 

In construing similar language contained in Section 

39 of Article III of the Constitution of Texas with regard to 

the phrase "no law . . . shall take effect or go into force 

until ninety days after the adjournment of the session at which 

it was enacted', the Courts of this State have established 

that ninety full days must intervene between the date of adjournment and the effective date of the ninety day bill. Halbert 

v. San Saba Springs Land and Livestock Association, 89 Tex. 231, 

f4 S.W. 639 (1896); Copus v. Chorn, supra. 

By like reasoning, since the emergency clause provides that the act shall take effect "sixty days from and after 

its passage," sixty full days must intervene between the date 

of passage and the effective date of Senate Bill 64. 

Since Senate Bill 64 passed the Senate on February 

18 and the House on March 6, its passage occurred March 6, 1969, 

and the act shall take effect and be in force sixty days from 

- 1871- 
. 

Hon. Joe 8. Roberts, page 3 (N-3'78) 

and after March 6, 1969. Therefore, the effective date of 

Senate Bill 64 is May 6, 1969, at the beginning of said day, 

or stated another way, it is effective 12:Ol A.M. on May 6, 

1969. 

SUMMARY 

The legislature having prescribed that 

Senate Bill 64, Acts of the 61st Legislature, 

Regular Session, 1969, shall take effect Andy 

be in force sixty days from and after its passage and Senate Bill 64'having received the required two-thirds record vote, and entered upon 

the journals of each house, sixty full days must 

intervene between the date of its passage, March 

6, 196,9, and the effective date of this act. 

Therefore, the effective date of the act is the 

beginning of May 6, 1969, or after midnight of 

May 5, 1969. 

n 

as 

Prepared by John Reeves 

Assistant Attorney General 

APPROVED: 

OPINION COMMITTEE 

Rerns Taylor, Chairman 

George Kelton;Vice-Chairman 

James McCoy 

Neil Williams 

Malcolm Quick 

John Banks 

W. V. GEPPERT 

Staff Legal Assistant 

HAWTHORNE PHILLIPS 

Executive As.sistant 

- 1872 -