By:  Bivins                                           S.B. No. 1340
       73R8021 PB-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the use of electronic transfer methods for unemployment
    1-3  compensation insurance purposes.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 9(c), Texas Unemployment Compensation Act
    1-6  (Article 5221b-7, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to
    1-7  read as follows:
    1-8        (c)  Withdrawals:  Moneys requisitioned from this State's
    1-9  account in the Unemployment Trust Fund shall be used exclusively
   1-10  for the payment of benefits and for refunds pursuant to Section 14
   1-11  and this Section, except that money credited to this State's
   1-12  account pursuant to Section 903 of the Social Security Act, as
   1-13  amended, may be requisitioned and used by the Commission only to
   1-14  the extent and under the conditions prescribed by said Section 903,
   1-15  as amended.  The Commission shall from time to time requisition
   1-16  from the Unemployment Trust Fund such amounts, not exceeding the
   1-17  amounts standing to its account therein, as it deems necessary for
   1-18  the payment of benefits and refunds for a reasonable future period.
   1-19  Upon receipt thereof, the Treasurer shall deposit such moneys in
   1-20  the benefit account, and the Comptroller shall issue his warrants
   1-21  for payment of benefits solely from such benefit account.
   1-22  Expenditures of such moneys in the benefit account, and refunds
   1-23  from the clearing account, shall not be subject to any provision of
   1-24  law which may require itemization or other formal release by State
    2-1  officers of money in their custody.  <All warrants issued for the
    2-2  payment of benefits and refunds shall bear the signature of the
    2-3  Treasurer and the countersignature of a member of the Commission,
    2-4  or its duly authorized agent, for that purpose.>  Any balance of
    2-5  moneys requisitioned from the Unemployment Trust Fund which remains
    2-6  unclaimed or unpaid in the benefit account after the expiration of
    2-7  the period for which such sums were requisitioned, shall either be
    2-8  deducted from estimates for, and may be utilized for the payment of
    2-9  benefits and refunds during succeeding periods, or, in the
   2-10  discretion of the Commission, shall be redeposited with the
   2-11  Secretary of the Treasury of the United States of America, to the
   2-12  credit of this State's account in the Unemployment Trust Fund as
   2-13  provided in subsection (b) of this Section.
   2-14        SECTION 2.  Section 19, Texas Unemployment Compensation Act
   2-15  (Article 5221b-17, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by
   2-16  adding Subsections (r) and (s) to read as follows:
   2-17        (r)  "Mail" means the United States Postal Service or any
   2-18  other method approved by the commission to provide actual notice,
   2-19  including an electronic transfer system.
   2-20        (s)  "Warrant" means a written payment order or an electronic
   2-21  payment order that is a part of an electronic fund transfer system
   2-22  approved by the commission.
   2-23        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-24  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-25  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-26  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-27  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    3-1  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    3-2  passage, and it is so enacted.