By:  Moncrief                                         S.B. No. 1139
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to eligibility of certain professional athletes for
    1-2  workers' compensation benefits.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 3.075, Texas Workers' Compensation Act
    1-5  (Article 8308-3.075, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 3.075.  Application to certain professional athletes.
    1-8  (a)  A person employed as a professional athlete by a franchise of
    1-9  the National Football League, National Basketball Association,
   1-10  American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or the National
   1-11  League of Professional Baseball Clubs under a contract for hire or
   1-12  a collective bargaining agreement who is entitled to benefits for
   1-13  medical care or <and> weekly benefits that are equal to or greater
   1-14  than the benefits provided under this Act may not receive benefits
   1-15  under this Act and the equivalent benefits under the contract or
   1-16  collective bargaining agreement.  An athlete covered by such a
   1-17  contract or agreement <who sustains an injury in the course and
   1-18  scope of the athlete's employment> must elect to receive either the
   1-19  benefits available under this Act or the benefits under the
   1-20  contract or agreement.
   1-21        (b)  An <The commission by rule shall establish the
   1-22  procedures and requirements for an> election under this section
   1-23  must be made not later than the 15th day after the date of the
   1-24  execution of a contract for hire or the beginning of employment
    2-1  pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement.   If the election is
    2-2  not made before that date, it is presumed that the athlete has
    2-3  elected to receive benefits under the contract or agreement.
    2-4        (c)  Any income benefits paid to an athlete who has elected
    2-5  to be paid the income benefits under this Act shall be offset by
    2-6  the total amount of injury benefits or wages, including bonuses,
    2-7  performance incentives, termination payments, or other payments for
    2-8  services received under a contract or collective bargaining
    2-9  agreement, payable during the period of the athlete's disability or
   2-10  impairment by the employer under the athlete's contract for hire or
   2-11  applicable collective bargaining agreement.
   2-12        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
   2-13  applies only to a claim for workers' compensation benefits that is
   2-14  filed with the Texas Workers' Compensation Commission on or after
   2-15  that date.  A claim filed before that date is governed by the law
   2-16  in effect on the date that the claim was filed, and the former law
   2-17  is continued in effect for that purpose.
   2-18        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-19  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-20  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-21  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-22  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.