By Counts                                              H.B. No. 340
       74R2261 JRD-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to directing the Texas Veterans Commission to determine
    1-3  the need for a system of state residential care facilities for
    1-4  veterans who are disabled.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 434, Government Code, is
    1-7  amended by adding Section 434.0075 to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 434.0075.  FINDINGS AND STUDY ABOUT RESIDENTIAL CARE
    1-9  FACILITIES.  (a)  The legislature finds that 43 states have
   1-10  established state residential care facilities for veterans who are
   1-11  disabled by age, disease, or other causes and who, because of their
   1-12  disabilities, are incapable of earning a living.  In these states
   1-13  the states' cost in providing the care is shared by the federal
   1-14  government through per diem payments, construction grants, and
   1-15  veteran participant fees.  The legislature also finds that this
   1-16  state currently has approximately 1.8 million resident veterans,
   1-17  among whom over 651,000 are age 60 or older.  Many of these
   1-18  veterans are needy and will require continuous medical care,
   1-19  in-home care, or nursing home care during the last years of their
   1-20  lives.  It is the intent of the legislature to determine the extent
   1-21  to which there exists in this state the need to provide for
   1-22  disabled veterans residing in this state care that is similar to
   1-23  the care provided by other states.
   1-24        (b)  The commission shall contract with a qualified
    2-1  consulting firm to study the need for and the feasibility of
    2-2  establishing a system of residential care facilities for disabled
    2-3  veterans under the jurisdiction of the commission or of another
    2-4  agency of state government.  The commission shall present the
    2-5  written findings of the study to the governor and the presiding
    2-6  officer of each house of the legislature before December 1, 1997.
    2-7        (c)  The commission is required to enter into a contract
    2-8  under this section only if the legislature appropriates money for
    2-9  that purpose.  If the legislature does not appropriate money for
   2-10  the contract, the commission may use available resources to conduct
   2-11  its own study of the issue.
   2-12        (d)  This section expires June 1, 1999.
   2-13        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   2-14        SECTION 3.  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.