By:  Danburg                                          H.B. No. 1775
       73R5706 MJW-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the qualifications for appointment as managing
    1-3  conservator of a child.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 14.01(c), Family Code, is amended to read
    1-6  as follows:
    1-7        (c)  In determining which parent to appoint as sole managing
    1-8  conservator, the court shall consider:
    1-9              (1)  the qualifications of the respective parents
   1-10  without regard to the sex, race, religion, or sexual orientation of
   1-11  the parent; and
   1-12              (2)  evidence of the intentional use of abusive
   1-13  physical force by a parent against his or her spouse or against any
   1-14  person younger than 18 years of age committed within a two-year
   1-15  period preceding the filing of the petition for divorce or
   1-16  annulment or during the pendency of the suit.
   1-17        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
   1-18  applies to the appointment of a sole managing conservator in a
   1-19  pending suit affecting the parent-child relationship without regard
   1-20  to whether the suit was filed before, on, or after the effective
   1-21  date of this Act.
   1-22        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-23  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-24  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-1  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-2  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.