H.B. No. 391
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to public retirement benefits payable to certain persons
    1-3  who have obtained qualified domestic relations orders.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 804, Government Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Section 804.005 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 804.005.  PAYMENT IN CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES IN LIEU OF
    1-8  BENEFITS AWARDED BY QUALIFIED DOMESTIC RELATIONS ORDER.  (a)  This
    1-9  section applies only to the Employees Retirement System of Texas
   1-10  and the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.
   1-11        (b)  A public retirement system to which this section applies
   1-12  shall pay an alternate payee of a member of the retirement system
   1-13  who is described by Subsection (c), if the alternate payee so
   1-14  elects and in lieu of the interest awarded by a qualified domestic
   1-15  relations order on or after January 1, 1985, an amount that is the
   1-16  alternate payee's portion of the actuarial equivalent of the
   1-17  accrued retirement benefit of the member of the retirement system,
   1-18  determined as if the member retired on the date of the alternate
   1-19  payee's election.  The amount becomes payable at the time the
   1-20  actuarial equivalent is determined, and the amount is payable in
   1-21  the form of an annuity payable in equal monthly installments for
   1-22  the life of the alternate payee.
   1-23        (c)  A member whose benefits are subject to partial payment
   1-24  under this section is one who has not retired from the retirement
    2-1  system, has attained the greater of the age of 62 or normal
    2-2  retirement age and the service requirements for service retirement,
    2-3  and retains credit and contributions in the retirement system
    2-4  attributable to that service.
    2-5        (d)  If an alternate payee elects to be paid under this
    2-6  section, the retirement system shall reduce the benefit payable by
    2-7  the system to the member or the member's beneficiary by the
    2-8  alternate payee's portion of the actuarial equivalent determined
    2-9  under Subsection (b).
   2-10        (e)  In determining under Subsection (b) the actuarial
   2-11  equivalent of an accrued retirement benefit, the system shall
   2-12  consider the member's benefit as a normal age standard service
   2-13  retirement annuity, without regard to any optional annuity chosen
   2-14  or beneficiary designated by the member.
   2-15        (f)  The beginning of monthly payments under this section
   2-16  terminates any interest that the alternate payee who receives the
   2-17  payment might otherwise have in benefits that accrue to the account
   2-18  of the member after the date the initial payment to the alternate
   2-19  payee is made.
   2-20        (g)  A public retirement system may adopt rules for
   2-21  administration of this section.
   2-22        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   2-23        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-24  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-25  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
   2-26  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-27  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.