By Mowery                                             H.B. No. 1631
       74R5862 CAS-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the investments of participants in the optional
    1-3  retirement program for faculty members employed in state-supported
    1-4  institutions of higher education.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Section 830.002, Government Code, is amended by
    1-7  adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:
    1-8        (d)  The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board may
    1-9  establish minimum standards that an insurance or annuity company
   1-10  must meet to be eligible to offer a participant in the optional
   1-11  retirement program an investment or retirement annuity authorized
   1-12  under Subsection (a) and Section 830.004, but may not otherwise
   1-13  limit the investment in which a participant may participate or the
   1-14  annuity a participant may purchase under the program.
   1-15        SECTION 2.  Section 830.004(a), Government Code, is amended
   1-16  to read as follows:
   1-17        (a)  A governing board may provide for contributions to any
   1-18  type of investment authorized by Section 403(b) of the Internal
   1-19  Revenue Code of 1986 (26 U.S.C. Section 403), as it existed on
   1-20  January 1, 1981, and may arrange the purchase of annuity contracts
   1-21  from any insurance or annuity company that is qualified to do
   1-22  business in this state.  A governing board may not limit the
   1-23  investment in which a participant may participate or the annuity a
   1-24  participant may purchase under the program if the investment or
    2-1  annuity is authorized by this subsection and Section 830.002(a) and
    2-2  is offered by a company eligible under the standards established
    2-3  under Section 830.002(d).
    2-4        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-5  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-6  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-7  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-8  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-9  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-10  passage, and it is so enacted.