By Thompson of Harris                                  H.B. No. 670
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the payment date of a utility bill for an elderly
    1-3  person.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  DEFINITIONS.  In this Act:
    1-6              (1)  "Elderly person" means a person who is 60 years of
    1-7  age or older.
    1-8              (2)  "Utility" means an electric, gas, water, or
    1-9  telephone utility that is operated by a public or private entity.
   1-10        SECTION 2.  PAYMENT DATE OF CERTAIN UTILITY BILLS.  (a)  On
   1-11  request of an elderly person, a utility shall delay without penalty
   1-12  the payment date of a bill for providing utility services to that
   1-13  person until the 25th day after the date on which the bill is
   1-14  issued.
   1-15        (b)  An elderly person may request that the utility implement
   1-16  the delay for the most recent utility bill or for that utility bill
   1-17  and each subsequent utility bill.
   1-18        (c)  The utility may require the requesting person to present
   1-19  reasonable proof that the person is 60 years of age or older.
   1-20        (d)  This section applies only to an elderly person who is a
   1-21  residential customer and who occupies the entire premises for which
   1-22  a delay is requested.
   1-23        (e)  This section does not apply to a utility that does not
   1-24  assess late payment charges on residential customers and that does
    2-1  not suspend service before the 26th day after the date of the bill
    2-2  for which collection action is taken and is regulated by the Public
    2-3  Utility Regulatory Act (Article 1446c, Vernon's Texas Civil
    2-4  Statutes).
    2-5        SECTION 3.  APPLICATION OF ACT.  This Act applies only to a
    2-6  utility bill issued on or after the effective date of this Act.  A
    2-7  utility bill issued before the effective date of this Act is
    2-8  governed by the law in effect when the bill was issued, and that
    2-9  law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   2-10        SECTION 4.  EMERGENCY.  The importance of this legislation
   2-11  and the crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-12  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-13  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-14  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-15  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-16  passage, and it is so enacted.