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 * * * * *