By:  Goolsby                                           H.B. No. 314
       73R2300 DLF-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to continuing education requirements for certain insurance
    1-3  agents.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 5b, Article 21.14, Insurance Code, is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 5b.  Continuing Education.  The State Board of Insurance
    1-8  shall adopt a procedure for certifying and shall certify continuing
    1-9  education programs for agents.  Participation in the programs is
   1-10  mandatory for all agents licensed under this article.  The State
   1-11  Board of Insurance shall exempt agents who have been licensed for
   1-12  <15 years or more beginning September 1, 1987; 16 years or more
   1-13  beginning September 1, 1988; 17 years or more beginning
   1-14  September 1, 1989; 18 years or more beginning September 1, 1990; 19
   1-15  years or more beginning September 1, 1991; and> 20 years or more on
   1-16  or after September 1, 1992, and shall have the rulemaking authority
   1-17  to provide for other reasonable exemptions.  No agent shall  be
   1-18  required to complete more than 15 hours of continuing education
   1-19  during each licensing period <per year>.  An agent licensed under
   1-20  both Articles 21.07-1 and 21.14 may elect to satisfy the continuing
   1-21  education requirements of either article and shall not be required
   1-22  to complete a total of more than 15 hours of continuing education
   1-23  during each licensing period <per year>.
   1-24        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
    2-1  applies only to continuing education required to be completed in a
    2-2  licensing period that begins on or after January 1, 1994.
    2-3  Continuing education required to be completed in a licensing period
    2-4  that begins before January 1, 1994, is governed by the law as it
    2-5  existed immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that
    2-6  law is continued in effect for that purpose.
    2-7        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-8  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-9  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
   2-10  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-11  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.