1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to evidence of domestic violence in the appointment of a
 1-3     managing conservator for a child.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 153.004(a), Family Code, is amended to
 1-6     read as follows:
 1-7           (a)  In determining whether to appoint a party as a sole or
 1-8     joint managing conservator, the court shall consider evidence of
 1-9     the intentional use of abusive physical force by a party against
1-10     the party's spouse, a parent of the child, or [against] any person
1-11     younger than 18 years of age committed within a two-year period
1-12     preceding the filing of the suit or during the pendency of the
1-13     suit.
1-14           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-15     applies only to a suit affecting the parent-child relationship
1-16     pending on or filed on or after that date.
1-17           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-18     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
         _______________________________     _______________________________
             President of the Senate              Speaker of the House
               I certify that H.B. No. 1337 was passed by the House on May
         8, 1999, by a non-record vote.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Chief Clerk of the House
               I certify that H.B. No. 1337 was passed by the Senate on May
         26, 1999, by the following vote:  Yeas 30, Nays 0.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Secretary of the Senate
         APPROVED:  _____________________
                            Date
                    _____________________
                          Governor