H.B. No. 54
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the establishment of a parental responsibility pilot
    1-3  program to assist certain teenage parents receiving AFDC.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  PILOT PROGRAM.  (a)  The Texas Department of
    1-6  Human Services shall establish a parental responsibility pilot
    1-7  program designed to discourage teenage pregnancy, encourage teenage
    1-8  parents to marry, and improve through education, job training, and
    1-9  support services the work and parenting skills of a teenage parent
   1-10  who receives financial assistance under the department's aid to
   1-11  families with dependent children program.  The department shall,
   1-12  when appropriate, include both parents of the child in the program.
   1-13        (b)  The department shall adopt rules and a timetable to
   1-14  implement and complete the pilot program.  The department shall use
   1-15  the Wisconsin parental and family responsibility initiative as a
   1-16  model for the pilot program and adapted as necessary for Texas
   1-17  conditions.
   1-18        (c)  The department shall select not more than three
   1-19  counties, each with a population of 200,000 or more according to
   1-20  the most recent federal census, in which to establish the pilot
   1-21  program.
   1-22        SECTION 2.  REPORT.  Not later than January 1, 1997, the
   1-23  Texas Department of Human Services shall submit to the governor and
   1-24  the 75th Legislature a report concerning the effectiveness of the
    2-1  pilot program.
    2-2        SECTION 3.  WAIVERS.  If before implementing Section 1 of
    2-3  this Act the Texas Department of Human Services determines that a
    2-4  waiver or authorization from a federal agency is necessary for
    2-5  implementation, the department shall request the waiver or
    2-6  authorization and may delay implementing those provisions until the
    2-7  waiver or authorization is granted.
    2-8        SECTION 4.  EFFECTIVE DATE AND DEADLINES.  (a)  This Act
    2-9  takes effect September 1, 1993.
   2-10        (b)  The Texas Department of Human Services shall establish
   2-11  the pilot program required by this Act not later than January 1,
   2-12  1994.
   2-13        SECTION 5.  EXPIRATION DATE.  This Act expires September 1,
   2-14  1997.
   2-15        SECTION 6.  EMERGENCY.  The importance of this legislation
   2-16  and the crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-17  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-18  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-19  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.