By:  Linebarger                                        H.B. No. 391
       73R114 GCH-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    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)  A
    1-9  public retirement system to which this chapter applies shall pay an
   1-10  alternate payee of a member of the retirement system who is
   1-11  described by Subsection (b), if the payee so elects and in lieu of
   1-12  the interest awarded by a qualified domestic relations order, an
   1-13  amount that is the present actuarial value of that interest.  The
   1-14  amount becomes payable at the time the actuarial value is
   1-15  determined and may be, at the alternate payee's election, in the
   1-16  form of:
   1-17              (1)  an annuity payable in equal monthly installments
   1-18  for the life of the alternate payee; or
   1-19              (2)  a lump sum.
   1-20        (b)  A member whose benefits are subject to partial payment
   1-21  under this section is one who has not retired from the retirement
   1-22  system, has attained the age and service requirements for service
   1-23  retirement at full or actuarially reduced benefits, and retains
   1-24  credit and contributions in the retirement system attributable to
    2-1  that service.
    2-2        (c)  If an alternate payee elects to be paid under this
    2-3  section, the retirement system shall reduce the benefit payable by
    2-4  the system to the member by the present actuarial value of the
    2-5  interest in the benefit awarded to the alternate payee by the
    2-6  qualified domestic relations order.
    2-7        (d)  In determining under Subsection (c) the present
    2-8  actuarial value of an interest awarded by a qualified domestic
    2-9  relations order in a benefit payable by a public retirement system
   2-10  to a member of the system, the system shall consider the member's
   2-11  benefit as a standard service retirement annuity, reduced as
   2-12  appropriate for early retirement, without regard to any optional
   2-13  annuity chosen or beneficiary designated by the member.
   2-14        (e)  A lump-sum payment or the beginning of monthly payments
   2-15  under this section terminates any interest that the alternate payee
   2-16  who receives the payment might otherwise have in benefits that
   2-17  accrue to the account of the member after the date the initial
   2-18  payment to the alternate payee is made.
   2-19        (f)  A person who receives payment under this section is
   2-20  ineligible to receive payments:
   2-21              (1)  as a designated beneficiary of the same member
   2-22  after the member's death before or after retirement; or
   2-23              (2)  as an alternate payee of the same member under
   2-24  rules adopted under Section 804.004.
   2-25        (g)  A public retirement system may adopt rules for
   2-26  administration of this section.
   2-27        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
    3-1        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-2  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-3  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
    3-4  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-5  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.