By:  Henderson                                         S.B. No. 901
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the investments of participants in the optional
    1-2  retirement program for faculty members employed in state-supported
    1-3  institutions of higher education.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 830.002, Government Code, is amended by
    1-6  adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:
    1-7        (d)  The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board shall
    1-8  establish minimum standards that an insurance or annuity company
    1-9  must meet to be eligible to offer a participant in the optional
   1-10  retirement program an investment or retirement annuity authorized
   1-11  under Subsection (a) and Section 830.004, but may not otherwise
   1-12  restrict:
   1-13              (1)  the insurance or annuity company with whom a
   1-14  participant may make an investment or from whom a participant may
   1-15  purchase an annuity under the program; or
   1-16              (2)  the investment in which a participant may
   1-17  participate or the annuity a participant may purchase under the
   1-18  program.
   1-19        SECTION 2.  Subsection (a), Section 830.004, Government Code,
   1-20  is amended to read as follows:
   1-21        (a)  A governing board may provide for contributions to any
   1-22  type of investment authorized by Section 403(b) of the Internal
   1-23  Revenue Code of 1986 (26 U.S.C. Section 403), as it existed on
   1-24  January 1, 1981, and may arrange the purchase of annuity contracts
    2-1  from any insurance or annuity company that is qualified to do
    2-2  business in this state.  A governing board may not restrict the
    2-3  investment in which a participant may participate or the annuity a
    2-4  participant may purchase under the program if the investment or
    2-5  annuity is authorized by this subsection and Section 830.002(a).  A
    2-6  governing board may not restrict the insurance or annuity company
    2-7  with whom a participant may make an investment or from whom a
    2-8  participant may purchase an annuity if the company is eligible
    2-9  under the standards established under Section 830.002(d).
   2-10        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-11  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-12  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-13  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-14  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-15  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-16  passage, and it is so enacted.