By Janek                                        H.B. No. 2672

      75R5346 JMM-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the offense of criminal nonsupport.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Sections 25.05(a) and (d), Penal Code, are

 1-5     amended to read as follows:

 1-6           (a)  An individual commits an offense if the person [he]

 1-7     intentionally or knowingly fails to provide support for the

 1-8     person's [his] child younger than 18 years of age, or for the

 1-9     person's [his] child who is the subject of a court order requiring

1-10     the individual to support the  child.

1-11           (d)  It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this

1-12     section that the actor could not provide support for the actor's

1-13     [his] child.

1-14           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-15     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-16     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-17     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-18     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-19     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-20     passage, and it is so enacted.