By Wilson                                              H.B. No. 650
       74R1012 MLR-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to donations to a state agency by certain attorneys.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subtitle G, Title 2, Government Code, is amended
    1-5  by adding Chapter 84 to read as follows:
    1-6                   CHAPTER 84.  DONATION BY ATTORNEY
    1-7        Sec. 84.001.  DEFINITIONS.  In this chapter:
    1-8              (1)  "Court-appointed attorney" means an attorney
    1-9  appointed by a court to represent a person and includes an attorney
   1-10  appointed ad litem.
   1-11              (2)  "Donation" means a gift, grant, payment, devise,
   1-12  bequest, or funding of money.
   1-13              (3)  "State agency" means a board, commission,
   1-14  department, office, or other agency that:
   1-15                    (A)  is in a branch of state government;
   1-16                    (B)  was created by the constitution or a statute
   1-17  of this state; and
   1-18                    (C)  has statewide jurisdiction.
   1-19        Sec. 84.002.  ATTORNEY DONATION TO AGENCY.  (a)  A state
   1-20  agency may accept a donation made by a court-appointed attorney
   1-21  under this chapter.
   1-22        (b)  A court-appointed attorney may donate a fee that would
   1-23  have been generated by an appointment to the state agency of the
   1-24  attorney's choice.
    2-1        (c)  The supreme court by rule shall provide a payment waiver
    2-2  system that authorizes a court-appointed attorney to donate the fee
    2-3  generated by an appointment to a state agency.
    2-4        Sec. 84.003.  FEE TRANSFER.  (a)  The custodian of the county
    2-5  treasury  shall keep a record of the amount of the fees collected
    2-6  under Section 84.002 and, on or before the last day of the month
    2-7  following each calendar quarter, remit to the comptroller the fees
    2-8  collected under Section 84.002 in the preceding quarter.  The
    2-9  custodian of the county treasury may retain 10 percent of the fees
   2-10  collected under Section 84.002 and the interest as a service fee if
   2-11  the custodian of the treasury keeps records of the amount of fees
   2-12  on deposit collected under Section 84.002 and remits the funds to
   2-13  the comptroller within the period prescribed by this section.
   2-14        (b)  The comptroller shall deposit a fee remitted under this
   2-15  section to the credit of the fund or account specified by the
   2-16  agency designated by the donor attorney under Section 84.002(b).
   2-17  Sections 403.094 and 403.095 do not apply to funds or accounts
   2-18  designated under this subsection.  Money donated under this section
   2-19  may be appropriated only to the agency designated by the attorney
   2-20  donating the money.  Money deposited under this section is
   2-21  supplementary and is not income for purposes of reducing general
   2-22  revenue appropriations to the agency that received the donation in
   2-23  the General Appropriations Act.
   2-24        SECTION 2.  The supreme court shall adopt the rules required
   2-25  by Section 84.002(c), Government Code, as added by this Act, not
   2-26  later than January 1, 1996.
   2-27        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-1  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-2  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-3  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-4  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.