76R10870 PB-F                           
         By George                                             H.B. No. 2507
         Substitute the following for H.B. No. 2507:
         By George                                         C.S.H.B. No. 2507
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to status as an employer under a workers' compensation
 1-3     insurance policy or certificate of authority to self-insure.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 408.001(a), Labor Code, is amended to
 1-6     read as follows:
 1-7           (a)  Recovery of workers' compensation benefits is the
 1-8     exclusive remedy of an employee covered by workers' compensation
 1-9     insurance coverage or a legal beneficiary for the death of, or a
1-10     work-related injury sustained by, the employee against:
1-11                 (1)  the employer;
1-12                 (2)  a parent corporation of the employer, a subsidiary
1-13     corporation of the employer, or any other subsidiary of the parent
1-14     corporation of the employer, that:
1-15                       (A)  is a named insured on the employer's policy
1-16     of workers' compensation insurance; or
1-17                       (B)  is covered by a certificate of authority to
1-18     self-insure issued by the commission under Chapter 407; or
1-19                 (3)  an agent or employee of a person described by
1-20     Subdivision (1) or (2) of this subsection [the employer for the
1-21     death of or a  work-related injury sustained by the employee].
1-22           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-23     applies only to a claim for workers' compensation benefits based on
1-24     a compensable injury that occurs on or after that date.  A claim
 2-1     based on a compensable injury that occurs before that date is
 2-2     governed by the law in effect on the date that the compensable
 2-3     injury occurred, and the former law is continued in effect for that
 2-4     purpose.
 2-5           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-6     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-7     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-8     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-9     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.