By: Leedom S.B. No. 793
73R6385 GCH-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to disability retirement under the Employees Retirement
1-3 System of Texas.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 811.001(12), Government Code, is amended
1-6 to read as follows:
1-7 (12) "Occupational death or disability" means death or
1-8 disability from:
1-9 (A) an injury <or disease> that directly results
1-10 from a specific act or occurrence determinable by a definite time
1-11 and place, and directly results from an inherent risk or hazard
1-12 peculiar to a duty that arises from and in the course of state
1-13 employment; or
1-14 (B) a disease that directly results from an
1-15 inherent risk or hazard peculiar to a duty that arises from and in
1-16 the course of state employment.
1-17 SECTION 2. (a) A disability retiree of the Employees
1-18 Retirement System of Texas whose claim of an occupational
1-19 disability was denied by the retirement system before the effective
1-20 date of this Act is entitled to an administrative hearing to
1-21 determine whether the person's disability would have been
1-22 occupational under Section 811.001(12), Government Code, as amended
1-23 by this Act, if that definition had been in effect at the time the
1-24 disability was incurred. A request for a hearing described by this
2-1 subsection must be filed with the retirement system before January
2-2 1, 1995, or the right is waived.
2-3 (b) The Employees Retirement System of Texas shall mail to
2-4 each disability retiree whose claim of an occupational disability
2-5 was denied by the retirement system in the two years preceding the
2-6 effective date of this Act a notice of the right to a hearing under
2-7 this section.
2-8 (c) After a hearing, if the Employees Retirement System of
2-9 Texas determines that the retiree's disability would have been
2-10 considered occupational if Section 811.001(12), Government Code, as
2-11 amended by this Act, had been in effect at the time the disability
2-12 was incurred, the retirement system shall recompute the retiree's
2-13 annuity as an occupational disability retirement annuity of the
2-14 same type as the annuity originally selected by the retiree. The
2-15 recomputed annuity becomes payable beginning with the first payment
2-16 that becomes due after the redetermination is made of the nature of
2-17 the disability.
2-18 (d) A person whose annuity is recomputed under this section
2-19 is considered a retiree because of occupational disability for
2-20 purposes of all programs administered by the Employees Retirement
2-21 System of Texas.
2-22 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-23 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-24 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-25 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-26 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-27 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-1 passage, and it is so enacted.