By Lewis of Tarrant                                   H.B. No. 2002
         76R7387 CLG-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to exemptions from work or employment activity
 1-3     participation requirements for certain TANF recipients.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 31.012, Human Resources Code, is amended
 1-6     by amending Subsection (c) and adding Subsection (f) to read as
 1-7     follows:
 1-8           (c)  [A person who is the caretaker of a physically or
 1-9     mentally disabled child who requires the caretaker's presence is
1-10     not required to participate in a program under this section.]
1-11     Effective September 1, 1999, a single custodial parent [1995, a
1-12     person] is not required to participate in a program under this
1-13     section until the parent's [person's] youngest child at the time
1-14     the parent [person] first became eligible for assistance reaches
1-15     the age of three [five].  Effective September 1, 2000 [1997], a
1-16     single custodial parent [a person] is exempt until the parent's
1-17     [person's] youngest child at the time the parent [person] first
1-18     became eligible for assistance reaches the age of two [four].
1-19     Effective September 1, 2001, a single custodial parent is exempt
1-20     until the parent's youngest child at the time the parent first
1-21     became eligible for assistance reaches the age of one.
1-22     Notwithstanding Sections 31.0035(b) and 32.0255(b), the department
1-23     shall provide to a parent [person] who is exempt under this
1-24     subsection and who voluntarily participates in a program under
 2-1     Subsection (a)(2) six months of transitional benefits in addition
 2-2     to the applicable limit prescribed by Section 31.0065.
 2-3           (f)  In this section, "custodial parent" means the parent of
 2-4     a child with whom the child primarily resides, including a parent
 2-5     who has been appointed under a court order as sole managing
 2-6     conservator or joint managing conservator of the child.
 2-7           SECTION 2.  If, before implementing any provision of Section
 2-8     31.012(c), Human Resources Code, as amended by this Act, a state
 2-9     agency determines that a waiver or authorization from a federal
2-10     agency is necessary for implementation, the agency shall request
2-11     the waiver or authorization and may delay implementing that
2-12     provision until the waiver or authorization is granted.
2-13           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
2-14     applies only to a person who receives financial assistance under
2-15     Chapter 31, Human Resources Code, on or after that date, regardless
2-16     of the date on which eligibility for that assistance was
2-17     determined.
2-18           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.