By:  Thompson, G.                                     H.B. No. 2081
       73R6569 JMM-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to paternity testing for certain persons obligated to pay
    1-3  child support.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 14, Family Code, is amended
    1-6  by adding Section 14.09 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 14.09.  PATERNITY TESTING FOR OBLIGOR.  (a)  An obligor
    1-8  who is a man and who is current in child support payments may
    1-9  petition the court having continuing, exclusive jurisdiction of the
   1-10  suit affecting the parent-child relationship as provided by Section
   1-11  11.05 of this code to order the mother of the child for whom
   1-12  support payments are made, the child, and the obligor to submit to
   1-13  the taking of blood, body fluid, or tissue samples for the purpose
   1-14  of scientifically accepted paternity testing.  The testing must be
   1-15  conducted as provided by Section 13.02(a) of this code.
   1-16        (b)  The obligor may file a petition under this section only
   1-17  once.
   1-18        (c)  After notice and hearing, a court shall vacate the
   1-19  obligor's order of child support if the obligor shows:
   1-20              (1)  that the mother of the child refuses to submit to
   1-21  testing or refuses to allow the child to be tested; or
   1-22              (2)  the results of paternity testing under this
   1-23  section exclude the obligor from the possibility of being the
   1-24  father of the child.
    2-1        (d)  If the test results do not exclude the obligor from the
    2-2  possibility of being the father of the child, the obligor's duty to
    2-3  pay child support continues as required by the child support order.
    2-4        SECTION 2.  Section 14.05(d), Family Code, is amended to read
    2-5  as follows:
    2-6        (d)  Unless otherwise agreed to in writing or expressly
    2-7  provided in the decree, provisions for the support of a child are
    2-8  terminated by the marriage of the child, the removal of the child's
    2-9  disabilities for general purposes, or the death of a parent
   2-10  obligated to support the child.  In addition, provisions for the
   2-11  support of a child may be terminated as provided by Section 14.09
   2-12  of this code.
   2-13        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   2-14        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-15  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-16  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-17  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-18  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.