1-1  By:  Oliveira (Senate Sponsor - Sibley)               H.B. No. 1027
    1-2        (In the Senate - Received from the House April 3, 1995;
    1-3  April 4, 1995, read first time and referred to Committee on
    1-4  Economic Development; May 22, 1995, reported favorably by the
    1-5  following vote:  Yeas 10, Nays 0; May 22, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to certain eligibility conditions for receipt of
    1-9  unemployment compensation benefits.
   1-10        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-11        SECTION 1.  Section 207.021(a), Labor Code, is amended to
   1-12  read as follows:
   1-13        (a)  Except as provided by Chapter 215, an unemployed
   1-14  individual is eligible to receive benefits for a benefit period if
   1-15  the individual:
   1-16              (1)  has registered for work at an employment office
   1-17  and has continued to report to the employment office as required by
   1-18  rules adopted by the commission;
   1-19              (2)  has made a claim for benefits under Section
   1-20  208.001;
   1-21              (3)  is able to work;
   1-22              (4)  is available for work;
   1-23              (5)  for the individual's base period, has benefit wage
   1-24  credits:
   1-25                    (A)  in at least two calendar quarters; and
   1-26                    (B)  in an amount not less than 37 times the
   1-27  individual's benefit amount;
   1-28              (6)  after the beginning date of the individual's most
   1-29  recent prior benefit year, if applicable, earned wages in an amount
   1-30  equal to not less than six times the individual's benefit amount;
   1-31  <and>
   1-32              (7)  has been totally or partially unemployed for a
   1-33  waiting period of at least seven consecutive days; and
   1-34              (8)  participates in reemployment services, such as a
   1-35  job search assistance service, if the individual has been
   1-36  determined, according to a profiling system established by the
   1-37  commission, to be likely to exhaust eligibility for regular
   1-38  benefits and to need those services to obtain new employment,
   1-39  unless:
   1-40                    (A)  the individual has completed participation
   1-41  in such a service; or
   1-42                    (B)  there is reasonable cause, as determined by
   1-43  the commission, for the individual's failure to participate in
   1-44  those services.
   1-45        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   1-46  applies only to eligibility for unemployment compensation benefits
   1-47  based on a claim filed with the Texas Employment Commission on or
   1-48  after that date.  A claim filed before that date is governed by the
   1-49  law in effect on the date that the claim was filed, and the former
   1-50  law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   1-51        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-52  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-53  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-54  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-55  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
   1-56                               * * * * *