By Shields                                            H.B. No. 1267
         76R5061 CMR-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the fee an employer may deduct from an employee's
 1-3     earnings for withholding child support from salary.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 158.204, Family Code, is amended to read
 1-6     as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 158.204.  EMPLOYER MAY DEDUCT FEE FROM EARNINGS.  In
 1-8     addition to the amount to be withheld as child support, each month
 1-9     an [An] employer  may deduct from the obligor's disposable earnings
1-10     an administrative fee in an amount equal to the lesser of:
1-11                 (1)  $10; or
1-12                 (2)  the actual administrative cost incurred by the
1-13     employer in complying with an order or writ of withholding [of not
1-14     more than $5 each month from the obligor's disposable earnings in
1-15     addition to the amount to be withheld as child support].
1-16           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-17     applies only to child support withheld on or after that date. Child
1-18     support withheld before the effective date of this Act is governed
1-19     by the law in effect on the date the child support was withheld,
1-20     and the former law is continued in effect 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.