By Palmer                                       H.B. No. 2085

      75R6626 JSA-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to exempting the children of certain disabled veterans

 1-3     from tuition, fees, and other charges of a public institution of

 1-4     higher education.

 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 54.203(b), Education Code, is amended to

 1-7     read as follows:

 1-8           (b)  The exemptions provided for in Subsection (a) of this

 1-9     section also apply and inure to the benefit of the children of

1-10     members of the armed forces of the United States who are or were

1-11     killed in action, who die or died while in service, who are missing

1-12     in action, or whose death is documented to be directly caused by

1-13     illness or injury connected with service in the armed forces of the

1-14     United States, to the benefit of the child of a living veteran of

1-15     the armed forces of the United States who has a service-connected

1-16     disability with a disability rating of at least 60 percent as

1-17     determined by the Veteran's Administration or other appropriate

1-18     federal office, and to the benefit of orphans of members of the

1-19     Texas National Guard and the Texas Air National Guard killed since

1-20     January 1, 1946, while on active duty either in the service of

1-21     their state or the United States.  However, to qualify for this

1-22     exemption a person must be a citizen of Texas and must have resided

1-23     in the state for at least 12 months immediately preceding the date

1-24     of the person's registration.

 2-1           SECTION 2.  This Act applies to tuition, fees, and other

 2-2     charges imposed beginning with the 1997 fall semester.

 2-3           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-4     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-5     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-6     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-7     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 2-8     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

 2-9     passage, and it is so enacted.