By Van de Putte                                       H.B. No. 1967
         76R6523 PB-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to an exclusion from unemployment compensation chargebacks
 1-3     for employers who hire certain recipients of public assistance.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 204, Labor Code, is amended
 1-6     by adding Section 204.0225 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 204.0225.  EXCLUSION FROM CHARGEBACKS FOR EMPLOYER WHO
 1-8     HIRES PUBLIC ASSISTANCE RECIPIENTS.  (a)  In this section, "public
 1-9     assistance recipient" means an individual who receives financial
1-10     assistance through the Texas Department of Human Services under
1-11     Chapter 31, Human Resources Code.
1-12           (b)  Benefits computed on benefit wage credits of an employee
1-13     or former employee may not be charged to the account of an employer
1-14     if:
1-15                 (1)  the employer hired the employee through an
1-16     employment program described under Chapter 31, Human Resources
1-17     Code; and
1-18                 (2)  the employee works for the employer for less than
1-19     six months.
1-20           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-21     applies only to a claim for unemployment compensation benefits that
1-22     is filed with the Texas Workforce Commission on or after that date.
1-23     A claim filed before that date is governed by the law in effect on
1-24     the date that the claim was filed, and the former law is continued
 2-1     in effect for that purpose.
 2-2           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-3     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-4     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-5     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-6     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.