By Maxey                                        H.B. No. 1210

      75R2629 JRD-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to establishing a home buyer education program.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter K, Chapter 2306, Government Code, is

 1-5     amended by adding Section 2306.253 to read as follows:

 1-6           Sec. 2306.253.  HOME BUYER EDUCATION PROGRAM.  (a)  The

 1-7     department shall develop and implement a statewide home buyer

 1-8     education program designed to provide information and counseling to

 1-9     prospective home buyers about the complexities of the home buying

1-10     process. The department shall implement the program by contracting

1-11     with the Texas Agricultural Extension Service to provide the

1-12     information and counseling on behalf of the department.

1-13           (b)  The department shall develop the program in cooperation

1-14     with the extension service, the Texas Department of Human Services,

1-15     the real estate center at Texas A&M University, the Texas Workforce

1-16     Commission, and advocates of affordable housing.

1-17           (c)  The department and the extension service shall make full

1-18     use of existing training and informational materials available from

1-19     sources such as the federal Department of Housing and Urban

1-20     Development and the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation.

1-21           (d)  To pay the extension service for the service's costs

1-22     under the contract in providing information and counseling to

1-23     prospective home buyers, the department may use money available to

1-24     the department for housing purposes that the department is not

 2-1     prohibited from spending on the home buyer education program,

 2-2     including the amount of administrative or service fees the

 2-3     department receives from the issuance or refunding of bonds that

 2-4     exceeds the amount the department needs to pay its overhead costs

 2-5     in administering its bond programs.

 2-6           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-7     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-8     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-9     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-10     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-11     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-12     passage, and it is so enacted.