By Craddick                                            H.B. No. 679
       74R1458 GCH-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the effect of certain types of divorce decrees on
    1-3  retirement benefits payable by the Employees Retirement System of
    1-4  Texas.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 814, Government Code, is
    1-7  amended by adding Section 814.006 to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 814.006.  REVOCATION OF BENEFICIARY BY DIVORCE DECREE.
    1-9  (a)  In this section, "divorce decree" means a judgment, decree, or
   1-10  order, including a document approving a property settlement
   1-11  agreement, that is issued by a court under a domestic relations law
   1-12  of this or another state in conjunction with the dissolution of a
   1-13  marriage and that relates to the marital property rights of a
   1-14  member or retiree and that person's former spouse.
   1-15        (b)  If the retirement system receives a certified copy of a
   1-16  divorce decree that purports to revoke or order the revocation of a
   1-17  designation by a member or retiree of a beneficiary under this
   1-18  subchapter, the retirement system shall change its records in
   1-19  accordance with the decree.
   1-20        (c)  If a divorce decree revokes or orders the revocation of
   1-21  a designation of a beneficiary made by a member who has selected a
   1-22  death benefit plan, or by a retiree who retired under an optional
   1-23  retirement annuity described by Section 814.108(c)(1) or (c)(2),
   1-24  the member or retiree may select a standard retirement annuity or
    2-1  another beneficiary for the optional retirement annuity.
    2-2        (d)  The retirement system shall recompute the annuity of a
    2-3  retiree who makes a selection under Subsection (c) to reflect that
    2-4  selection and shall adjust the annuity as appropriate for early
    2-5  retirement and postretirement increases provided after the date of
    2-6  the retiree's retirement.  The retirement system by rule shall
    2-7  provide for the recovery of the actuarial value, if any, of the
    2-8  difference between payments under the original and recomputed
    2-9  annuities.
   2-10        (e)  Payment of an annuity recomputed under Subsection (d)
   2-11  begins with the payment for the month after the later of:
   2-12              (1)  the month in which the retirement system receives
   2-13  a copy of the retiree's divorce decree; or
   2-14              (2)  the month in which the retiree makes a selection
   2-15  under Subsection (c).
   2-16        (f)  The procedure provided by this section is independent of
   2-17  and in addition to any change in retirement benefits provided by a
   2-18  qualified domestic relations order under Subchapter A, Chapter 804.
   2-19        SECTION 2.  If the Employees Retirement System of Texas
   2-20  received before the effective date of this Act a certified copy of
   2-21  a divorce decree that purports to revoke or order the revocation of
   2-22  a designation of a beneficiary by a member or retiree of the
   2-23  retirement system, the retirement system shall change its records
   2-24  and, as appropriate, begin payment of any recomputed annuity with
   2-25  the payment for the month after the month in which the retiree
   2-26  selects a standard annuity or another beneficiary.
   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,
    3-5  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    3-6  passage, and it is so enacted.