1-1     By:  McReynolds (Senate Sponsor - Harris)             H.B. No. 2227

 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 23, 1997;

 1-3     April 24, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on

 1-4     Jurisprudence; May 15, 1997, reported favorably by the following

 1-5     vote:  Yeas 6, Nays 0; May 15, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to additional periods of possession or access to a child.

 1-9           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-10           SECTION 1.  Section 157.168, Family Code, is amended to read

1-11     as follows:

1-12           Sec. 157.168.  ADDITIONAL PERIODS OF POSSESSION OR ACCESS.

1-13     (a)  A court may order additional periods of possession of or

1-14     access to a child to compensate for the denial of court-ordered

1-15     possession or access.  The additional periods of possession or

1-16     access:

1-17                 (1)  must be of the same type and duration of the

1-18     possession or access that was denied;

1-19                 (2)  may include weekend, holiday, and summer

1-20     possession or access; and

1-21                 (3)  must occur on or before the first anniversary of

1-22     the date the court finds that court-ordered possession or access

1-23     has been denied.

1-24           (b)  The person denied possession or access is entitled to

1-25     decide the time of the additional possession or access, subject to

1-26     the provisions of Subsection (a)(1).

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

1-28     applies only to an order for additional periods of possession of or

1-29     access to a child made on or after that date.

1-30           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-31     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-32     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-33     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-34     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.

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