By Walker                                             H.B. No. 2156
       74R6087 PB-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to an exemption from continuing education requirements for
    1-3  certain persons licensed as real estate brokers.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 7A, The Real Estate License Act (Article
    1-6  6573a, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by amending
    1-7  Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (g) to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 7A.  LICENSE RENEWAL; CONTINUING EDUCATION; RETURN TO
    1-9  ACTIVE STATUS; FEES.  (a)  Except as otherwise provided by this
   1-10  section, to <To> renew an active real estate broker license or an
   1-11  active real estate salesman license that is not subject to the
   1-12  annual education requirements of this Act, the licensee must
   1-13  provide the commission proof of attendance at at least 15 classroom
   1-14  hours of continuing education courses approved by the commission
   1-15  during the term of the current license.  The commission by rule may
   1-16  provide for the substitution of relevant educational experience or
   1-17  correspondence courses approved by the commission instead of
   1-18  classroom attendance.  In addition, supervised video instruction
   1-19  may be approved by the commission as a course counting as classroom
   1-20  hours of mandatory continuing education.  At least six hours of
   1-21  instruction must be devoted to the rules of the commission, fair
   1-22  housing laws, agency laws, antitrust laws, the Deceptive Trade
   1-23  Practices-Consumer Protection Act (Subchapter E, Chapter 17,
   1-24  Business & Commerce Code), disclosures to buyers and sellers,
    2-1  current contract and addendum forms, the unauthorized practice of
    2-2  law, case studies involving violations of laws and regulations,
    2-3  current Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Administration
    2-4  regulations, tax laws, and other legal topics approved by the
    2-5  commission.  The remaining hours may be devoted to other real
    2-6  estate-related topics approved by the commission.  The commission
    2-7  may consider equivalent courses for continuing education credit.
    2-8  The commission, on the request of a provider of education, shall
    2-9  review a core real estate course authorized under Section 7 of this
   2-10  Act and may approve it as a mandatory continuing education course.
   2-11  Real estate related courses approved by the State Bar of Texas for
   2-12  minimum continuing legal education participatory credit shall
   2-13  automatically be approved as mandatory continuing education courses
   2-14  under this Act.  The commission may not require examinations except
   2-15  for correspondence courses.   Daily course segments must be at
   2-16  least three hours long but not more than 10 hours long.  If the
   2-17  license being renewed under this section was issued for less than
   2-18  two years, the licensee must provide the commission proof of
   2-19  attendance at at least eight classroom hours of continuing
   2-20  education within the term of the current license, three classroom
   2-21  hours of which must have been devoted to the legal topics specified
   2-22  in this section.
   2-23        (g)  In addition to the exemption established under
   2-24  Subsections (e) and (f) of this section, a person who has been
   2-25  licensed as a real estate broker for 20 years as of September 1,
   2-26  1995, is exempt from the continuing education requirements adopted
   2-27  under this section.  The commission by rule shall prescribe the
    3-1  procedure under which an applicant for an exemption under this
    3-2  subsection establishes eligibility for the exemption.  The
    3-3  commission may charge a reasonable fee to cover the costs of
    3-4  administering this subsection.
    3-5        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
    3-6  applies only to a real estate broker license that is renewed by the
    3-7  Texas Real Estate Commission on or after that date.  A license
    3-8  renewed before that date is governed by the law in effect on the
    3-9  date that the license is subject to renewal, and the former law is
   3-10  continued in effect for that purpose.
   3-11        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   3-12  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   3-13  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   3-14  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   3-15  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.