By Nixon                                         S.B. No. 775

      75R3604 SAW-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to eligibility for public assistance benefits administered

 1-3     by health and human services agencies.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 531, Government Code, is

 1-6     amended by adding Section 531.047 to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 531.047.  DOCUMENTS NECESSARY FOR ELIGIBILITY

 1-8     DETERMINATION.  A health and human services agency may not provide

 1-9     public assistance benefits to a person who fails to provide to the

1-10     agency a document necessary to determine eligibility for the

1-11     benefits.

1-12           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

1-13     applies only to a person who applies for or receives public

1-14     assistance benefits from a health and human services agency on or

1-15     after that date, regardless of the date on which eligibility for

1-16     the benefits  is determined.

1-17           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-18     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.