1-1  By:  Henderson                                         S.B. No. 901
    1-2        (In the Senate - Filed March 2, 1995; March 6, 1995, read
    1-3  first time and referred to Committee on State Affairs; May 5, 1995,
    1-4  reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 12, Nays 1;
    1-5  May 5, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to the investments of participants in the optional
    1-9  retirement program for faculty members employed in state-supported
   1-10  institutions of higher education.
   1-11        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-12        SECTION 1.  Section 830.002, Government Code, is amended by
   1-13  adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:
   1-14        (d)  The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board may
   1-15  establish minimum standards that an insurance or annuity company
   1-16  must meet to be eligible to offer a participant in the optional
   1-17  retirement program an investment or retirement annuity authorized
   1-18  under Subsection (a) and Section 830.004, but may not otherwise
   1-19  restrict:
   1-20              (1)  the insurance or annuity company with whom a
   1-21  participant may make an investment or from whom a participant may
   1-22  purchase an annuity under the program; or
   1-23              (2)  the investment in which a participant may
   1-24  participate or the annuity a participant may purchase under the
   1-25  program.
   1-26        SECTION 2.  Subsection (a), Section 830.004, Government Code,
   1-27  is amended to read as follows:
   1-28        (a)  A governing board may provide for contributions to any
   1-29  type of investment authorized by Section 403(b) of the Internal
   1-30  Revenue Code of 1986 (26 U.S.C. Section 403), as it existed on
   1-31  January 1, 1981, and may arrange the purchase of annuity contracts
   1-32  from any insurance or annuity company that is qualified to do
   1-33  business in this state.  A governing board may not restrict the
   1-34  investment in which a participant may participate or the annuity a
   1-35  participant may purchase under the program if the investment or
   1-36  annuity is authorized by this subsection and Section 830.002(a).  A
   1-37  governing board may not restrict the insurance or annuity company
   1-38  with whom a participant may make an investment or from whom a
   1-39  participant may purchase an annuity if the company is eligible
   1-40  under the standards established under Section 830.002(d).
   1-41        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-42  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-43  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-44  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-45  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-46  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-47  passage, and it is so enacted.
   1-48                               * * * * *