1-1     By:  Reyna of Bexar (Senate Sponsor - Ellis)           H.B. No. 625
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 19, 1999;
 1-3     April 20, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Jurisprudence; May 11, 1999, reported favorably by the following
 1-5     vote:  Yeas 4, Nays 0; May 11, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the hearing date on an adoption.
 1-9           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-10           SECTION 1.  Section 162.004, Family Code, as amended by
1-11     Section 74, Chapter 751, and  Section 1, Chapter 908, Acts of the
1-12     74th Legislature, Regular Session, 1995, is reenacted and amended
1-13     to read as follows:
1-14           Sec. 162.004.  TIME FOR HEARING.  (a)  The court shall set
1-15     the date for the hearing on the adoption at a time not before the
1-16     40th day [or later than the 60th day] after the later of the date
1-17     the social study is ordered or the date criminal history record
1-18     information is requested under Section 162.0085.
1-19           (b)  The [For good cause shown, the] court may set the
1-20     hearing at any time before the time provided by Subsection (a) if
1-21     the hearing date [that] provides adequate time for filing the
1-22     social study and notifying the court of the criminal history record
1-23     information for a person seeking to adopt the child.
1-24           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-25     applies only to a suit for adoption filed on or after that date.  A
1-26     suit for adoption filed before the effective date of this Act is
1-27     governed by the law in effect at the time the suit was filed, and
1-28     the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
1-29           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-30     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-31     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-32     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-33     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-34                                  * * * * *