By Tillery                                             H.B. No. 886
         76R3577 CMR-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the filing of certain unemployment compensation
 1-3     actions.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 212.204, Labor Code, is amended to read
 1-6     as  follows:
 1-7           Sec. 212.204.  FILING OF ACTION.  (a)  Except as provided by
 1-8     Subsection (b), an [An] action under this subchapter must be filed:
 1-9                 (1)  in the county of the claimant's residence; [or]
1-10                 (2)  in the county in this state in which the
1-11     claimant's last employer has its principal place of business; or
1-12                 (3)  in the county in which the division of the
1-13     claimant's last employer for which the claimant worked is located.
1-14           (b)  In addition to the counties prescribed by Subsection
1-15     (a), if the claimant is not a resident of this state, the claimant
1-16     may file an action, in:
1-17                       (A)  Travis County; or
1-18                       (B)  [the county in this state in which the
1-19     claimant's last employer has its principal place of business; or]
1-20                       [(C)]  the county of the claimant's last
1-21     residence in this state.
1-22           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-23     applies only to an unemployment compensation action filed on or
1-24     after the effective date of this Act.  An action filed before the
 2-1     effective date of this Act is governed by the law on the date the
 2-2     action was filed, and the former law is continued in effect for
 2-3     that purpose.
 2-4           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-5     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-6     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-7     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-8     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.