1-1           By:  Zaffirini, Ellis                             S.B. No. 57

 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed November 12, 1996; January 14, 1997,

 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Health and Human

 1-4     Services; February 5, 1997, reported favorably by the following

 1-5     vote:  Yeas 10, Nays 0; February 5, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to participation of certain AFDC recipients in the job

 1-9     opportunities and basic skills (JOBS) training program.

1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-11           SECTION 1.  Subsection (c), Section 31.012, Human Resources

1-12     Code, is amended to read as follows:

1-13           (c)  A person who is the caretaker of a physically or

1-14     mentally disabled child who requires the caretaker's presence is

1-15     not required to participate in a program under this section.

1-16     Effective September 1, 1995, a person is not required to

1-17     participate in a program under this section until the person's

1-18     youngest child at the time the person first became eligible for

1-19     assistance reaches the age of five.  Effective September 1, 1997, a

1-20     person is exempt until the person's youngest child at the time the

1-21     person first became eligible for assistance reaches the age of

1-22     four.  Notwithstanding Sections 31.0035(b) and 32.0255(b), the

1-23     department shall provide to a person who is exempt under this

1-24     subsection and who voluntarily participates [volunteers to

1-25     participate] in a program under Subsection (a)(2) six months of

1-26     transitional benefits in addition to the applicable limit

1-27     prescribed by Section 31.0065.

1-28           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

1-29     applies only to a person who receives financial assistance under

1-30     Chapter 31, Human Resources Code, on or after that date, regardless

1-31     of the date on which eligibility for that assistance was

1-32     determined.

1-33           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-34     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-35     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-36     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-37     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.

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