1-1  By:  Counts, et al. (Senate Sponsor - Zaffirini)       H.B. No. 340
    1-2        (In the Senate - Received from the House May 8, 1995;
    1-3  May 9, 1995, read first time and referred to Committee on Finance;
    1-4  May 16, 1995, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 11,
    1-5  Nays 0; May 16, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to directing the Texas Veterans Commission to determine
    1-9  the need for a system of state residential care facilities for
   1-10  veterans who are disabled.
   1-11        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-12        SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 434, Government Code, is
   1-13  amended by adding Section 434.0075 to read as follows:
   1-14        Sec. 434.0075.  FINDINGS AND STUDY ABOUT RESIDENTIAL CARE
   1-15  FACILITIES.  (a)  The legislature finds that 43 states have
   1-16  established state residential care facilities for veterans who are
   1-17  disabled by age, disease, or other causes and who, because of their
   1-18  disabilities, are incapable of earning a living.  In these states
   1-19  the states' cost in providing the care is shared by the federal
   1-20  government through per diem payments, construction grants, and
   1-21  veteran participant fees.  The legislature also finds that this
   1-22  state currently has approximately 1.8 million resident veterans,
   1-23  among whom over 651,000 are age 60 or older.  Many of these
   1-24  veterans are needy and will require continuous medical care,
   1-25  in-home care, or nursing home care during the last years of their
   1-26  lives.  It is the intent of the legislature to determine the extent
   1-27  to which there exists in this state the need to provide for
   1-28  disabled veterans residing in this state care that is similar to
   1-29  the care provided by other states.
   1-30        (b)  The commission shall contract with a qualified
   1-31  consulting firm to study the need for and the feasibility of
   1-32  establishing a system of residential care facilities for disabled
   1-33  veterans under the jurisdiction of the commission or of another
   1-34  agency of state government.  The commission shall present the
   1-35  written findings of the study to the governor and the presiding
   1-36  officer of each house of the legislature before December 1, 1997.
   1-37        (c)  The commission is required to enter into a contract
   1-38  under this section only if the legislature appropriates money for
   1-39  that purpose.  If the legislature does not appropriate money for
   1-40  the contract, the commission may use available resources to conduct
   1-41  its own study of the issue.
   1-42        (d)  This section expires June 1, 1999.
   1-43        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   1-44        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-45  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-46  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-47  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-48  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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