By Maxey                                        H.B. No. 2125

      75R3782 KKA-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to individual development accounts for certain recipients

 1-3     of financial assistance.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 31, Human Resources Code,

 1-6     is amended by adding Section 31.0127 to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 31.0127.  INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT ACCOUNTS.  (a)  A

 1-8     person in the private sector who employs a recipient of financial

 1-9     assistance through a subsidized employment program established

1-10     under Section 31.0126(a)(5) shall:

1-11                 (1)  establish an individual development account for

1-12     the recipient if the recipient does not have an established

1-13     account; and

1-14                 (2)  contribute, in addition to the salary paid to the

1-15     recipient, one dollar to the recipient's account for each hour of

1-16     work performed by the recipient while the employment is subsidized,

1-17     subject to the limitation prescribed by Subsection (b).

1-18           (b)  A person is not required by this section to contribute

1-19     more than $1,000 to a recipient's individual development account.

1-20           (c)  Expenditures from a recipient's individual development

1-21     account while the recipient is receiving financial assistance are

1-22     limited to educational and medical expenses, work-related expenses,

1-23     including a self-employment enterprise, and housing or moving

1-24     expenses for the recipient and a person who is a member of the

 2-1     AFDC-certified group.

 2-2           (d)  The department may not consider money contributed to a

 2-3     recipient's individual development account under Subsection (a)(2)

 2-4     as income or the balance of the account as a resource in

 2-5     determining whether the recipient meets household income and

 2-6     resource requirements for eligibility for financial assistance

 2-7     under this chapter.

 2-8           (e)  The department by rule may prescribe the maximum amount

 2-9     that may be deposited in a recipient's individual development

2-10     account.

2-11           SECTION 2.  Section 7.08(b), Chapter 655, Acts of the 74th

2-12     Legislature, Regular Session, 1995, is amended to read as follows:

2-13           (b)  The department by rule may provide for:

2-14                 (1)  the number of financial assistance recipients who

2-15     may participate in the program, except that each financial

2-16     assistance recipient employed through a subsidized employment

2-17     program established under Section 31.0126(a)(5), Human Resources

2-18     Code, must be allowed to participate; and

2-19                 (2)  the maximum amount that may be saved by a

2-20     participant.

2-21           SECTION 3.  If before implementing any provision of this Act,

2-22     a state agency determines that a waiver or authorization from a

2-23     federal agency is necessary for implementation, the state agency

2-24     shall request the waiver or authorization and may delay

2-25     implementing that provision until the waiver or authorization is

2-26     granted.

2-27           SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

 3-1           SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the

 3-2     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 3-3     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 3-4     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 3-5     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.