By:  Harris                                            S.B. No. 121
                (In the Senate - Filed December 5, 1994; January 16, 1995,
          read first time and referred to Committee on Jurisprudence;
          February 14, 1995, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
          Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0;
          February 14, 1995, sent to printer.)
          COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 121                By:  Henderson
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to voluntary establishment of paternity.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 192.003, Health and Safety Code, is
    1-5  amended by amending Subsection (d), as added by Section 1, Chapter
    1-6  519, Acts of the 73rd Legislature, 1993, and Subsections (e) and
    1-7  (f) to read as follows:
    1-8        (e)  If the mother of the child is not married to the father
    1-9  of the child, a person listed by Subsection (a) or (b) who is
   1-10  responsible for filing the birth certificate shall <(d)  On the
   1-11  birth of a child, the hospital, physician, midwife, or person
   1-12  acting as a midwife in attendance or their designee at a birth
   1-13  may>:
   1-14              (1)  provide an opportunity for the child's mother and
   1-15  biological father to sign the birth certificate or a form
   1-16  prescribed by the department in which the biological father
   1-17  consents to be named as the child's father on the child's birth
   1-18  certificate; and
   1-19              (2)  provide written information about establishing
   1-20  paternity, including an explanation of the rights and
   1-21  responsibilities of acknowledging paternity and information about
   1-22  the availability of<, including an application for> child support
   1-23  services, <furnished by the attorney general,> to the child's
   1-24  mother and the father, if present <regarding the benefits of having
   1-25  her child's paternity established and of the availability of
   1-26  paternity establishment services>.
   1-27        (f) <(e)>  The local registrar shall transmit signed consent
   1-28  forms to the state registrar.
   1-29        (g) <(f)>  The state registrar shall transmit signed consent
   1-30  forms to the attorney general who may use such forms for any
   1-31  purpose directly connected with the provision of child support
   1-32  services pursuant to Chapter 76, Human Resources Code.
   1-33        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   1-34  applies only to a birth certificate filed on or after that date.
   1-35        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-36  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-37  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-38  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-39  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
   1-40                               * * * * *