H.B. No. 1027
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to certain eligibility conditions for receipt of
    1-3  unemployment compensation benefits.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 207.021(a), Labor Code, is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        (a)  Except as provided by Chapter 215, an unemployed
    1-8  individual is eligible to receive benefits for a benefit period if
    1-9  the individual:
   1-10              (1)  has registered for work at an employment office
   1-11  and has continued to report to the employment office as required by
   1-12  rules adopted by the commission;
   1-13              (2)  has made a claim for benefits under Section
   1-14  208.001;
   1-15              (3)  is able to work;
   1-16              (4)  is available for work;
   1-17              (5)  for the individual's base period, has benefit wage
   1-18  credits:
   1-19                    (A)  in at least two calendar quarters; and
   1-20                    (B)  in an amount not less than 37 times the
   1-21  individual's benefit amount;
   1-22              (6)  after the beginning date of the individual's most
   1-23  recent prior benefit year, if applicable, earned wages in an amount
   1-24  equal to not less than six times the individual's benefit amount;
    2-1  <and>
    2-2              (7)  has been totally or partially unemployed for a
    2-3  waiting period of at least seven consecutive days; and
    2-4              (8)  participates in reemployment services, such as a
    2-5  job search assistance service, if the individual has been
    2-6  determined, according to a profiling system established by the
    2-7  commission, to be likely to exhaust eligibility for regular
    2-8  benefits and to need those services to obtain new employment,
    2-9  unless:
   2-10                    (A)  the individual has completed participation
   2-11  in such a service; or
   2-12                    (B)  there is reasonable cause, as determined by
   2-13  the commission, for the individual's failure to participate in
   2-14  those services.
   2-15        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   2-16  applies only to eligibility for unemployment compensation benefits
   2-17  based on a claim filed with the Texas Employment Commission on or
   2-18  after that date.  A claim filed before that date is governed by the
   2-19  law in effect on the date that the claim was filed, and the former
   2-20  law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   2-21        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-22  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-23  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-24  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-25  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.