By Averitt                                            H.B. No. 2347
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the use of certain employee benefits by employees of
    1-3  the Texas Department of Transportation instead of workers'
    1-4  compensation benefits.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Section 9, Chapter 502, Acts of the 45th
    1-7  Legislature, Regular Session, 1937 (Article 6674s, Vernon's Texas
    1-8  Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
    1-9        Sec. 9.  (a)  It is the purpose of this law that the
   1-10  compensation herein provided for shall be paid from week to week
   1-11  and as it accrues and directly to the person entitled thereto,
   1-12  unless the liability is redeemed as in such cases provided
   1-13  elsewhere herein.
   1-14        (b)  An employee may elect to use each or all of the
   1-15  following accrued and granted benefits before receiving weekly
   1-16  compensation benefits:
   1-17              (1)  annual leave;
   1-18              (2)  sick leave;
   1-19              (3)  compensatory time; or
   1-20              (4)  extended sick leave.
   1-21        (c)  If an employee elects to use the benefits listed in
   1-22  Subsection (b) of this section, the employee is not entitled to
   1-23  weekly compensation payments under this Act until the employee has
    2-1  exhausted the elected leave benefits.
    2-2        (d)  The Department has authority under Section 14 of this
    2-3  Act to provide rules for the administration of this section.
    2-4        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
    2-5  applies only to a claim for workers' compensation benefits that is
    2-6  filed on or after that date.  A claim filed before that date is
    2-7  governed by the law in effect on the date that the claim was filed,
    2-8  and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
    2-9        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-10  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-11  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-12  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-13  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.