By Siebert, Holzheauser, Goolsby, H.B. No. 1720 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-1 AN ACT 1-2 relating to a disqualification of eligibility for unemployment 1-3 compensation benefits for periods of partial unemployment caused by 1-4 a reduction in hours as a result of misconduct. 1-5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-6 SECTION 1. Section 201.091, Labor Code, is amended by adding 1-7 Subsection (d) to read as follows: 1-8 (d) Notwithstanding Subsection (b), an individual is not 1-9 partially unemployed for purposes of this subtitle for a benefit 1-10 period in which the individual's working hours are reduced by the 1-11 individual's employer as a result of misconduct connected with the 1-12 work on the part of the individual. Such limitation will be 1-13 effective for a maximum of four weeks from the effective date of 1-14 such a reduction in hours. 1-15 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and 1-16 applies only to eligibility for unemployment compensation benefits 1-17 based on a claim filed with the Texas Workforce Commission on or 1-18 after that date. A claim filed before that date is governed by the 1-19 law in effect on the date that the claim was filed, and the former 1-20 law is continued in effect for that purpose. 1-21 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the 1-22 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 1-23 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 1-24 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 1-25 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.