By Sibley                                        S.B. No. 933

      75R4690 DWS-F                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to prepaid funeral benefits.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 1(b), Chapter 512, Acts of the 54th

 1-5     Legislature, Regular Session, 1955 (Article 548b, Vernon's Texas

 1-6     Civil Statutes), is amended by amending Subdivision (9) and adding

 1-7     Subdivisions (12), (13), and (14) to read as follows:

 1-8                 (9)  "Prepaid funeral benefits" means prearranged or

 1-9     prepaid funeral [or cemetery] services or funeral merchandise,

1-10     including an alternative container, casket, or outer burial

1-11     container [caskets, grave vaults, and all other articles of

1-12     merchandise incidental  to a funeral service].  The term does not

1-13     include a grave, [lot, grave space, grave] marker, monument,

1-14     tombstone, crypt, niche, plot, or lawn crypt [mausoleum] unless it

1-15     is sold in contemplation of trade or barter for funeral services

1-16     and funeral merchandise to which this Act applies.

1-17                 (12)  "Crypt," "grave," "lawn crypt," "niche," and

1-18     "plot" have the meanings assigned those terms by Section 711.001,

1-19     Health and Safety Code.

1-20                 (13)  "Funeral merchandise" or "merchandise" means

1-21     goods sold or offered for sale on a preneed basis directly to the

1-22     public for use in connection with funeral services.

1-23                 (14)  "Funeral services" or "services" means services

1-24     sold or offered for sale on a preneed basis that may be used to:

 2-1                       (A)  care for or prepare deceased human bodies

 2-2     for burial, cremation, or other final disposition; or

 2-3                       (B)  arrange, supervise, or conduct a funeral or

 2-4     arrange for or supervise final disposition of deceased human

 2-5     bodies.

 2-6           SECTION 2.  Section 5A, Chapter 512, Acts of the 54th

 2-7     Legislature, Regular Session, 1955 (Article 548b, Vernon's Texas

 2-8     Civil Statutes), is amended by adding Subsection (i) to read as

 2-9     follows:

2-10           (i)  The Commissioner may waive a limitation provided by

2-11     Subsection (e), (f), or (g) of this section, on written request of

2-12     a permit holder, if the Commissioner concludes that the waiver does

2-13     not threaten an unreasonable risk of loss to the prepaid funeral

2-14     benefits trust funds.  The Commissioner by order shall approve or

2-15     disapprove the request not later than the 30th day after the date

2-16     the Commissioner receives the request.  If the Commissioner does

2-17     not disapprove the request before the expiration of this period,

2-18     the request is approved.  If the permit holder does not request a

2-19     hearing before the 11th day after the date of an order of

2-20     disapproval, the order takes effect on that 11th day.  If a hearing

2-21     is timely requested, the hearing shall be conducted as a contested

2-22     case under Chapter 2001, Government Code.

2-23           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-25     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-26     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-27     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 3-1     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

 3-2     passage, and it is so enacted.