By Reyna of Bexar                                      H.B. No. 444
         76R781 CMR-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the collection of retroactive child support.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 154.009(a), Family Code, is amended to
 1-5     read as follows:
 1-6           (a)  The court may order a parent to pay retroactive child
 1-7     support in an amount not to exceed the total amount of support that
 1-8     would have been due for the four years preceding the date of the
 1-9     court's order if the parent:
1-10                 (1)  has not previously been ordered to pay support for
1-11     the child; and
1-12                 (2)  was not a party to a suit in which support was
1-13     ordered.
1-14           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-15     applies only to a suit for retroactive child support filed on or
1-16     after that date without regard to whether the child support became
1-17     due before, on, or after that date.  A suit filed before the
1-18     effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the
1-19     date the suit was filed, and the former law is continued in effect
1-20     for that purpose.
1-21           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-1     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.