By McReynolds                                         H.B. No. 2596
         76R7724 CMR-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the payment of attorney's fees and court costs in
 1-3     certain proceedings involving child custody.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 157.167(b), Family Code, is amended to
 1-6     read as follows:
 1-7           (b)  If the court finds that the respondent has interfered
 1-8     with the terms of an order providing for possession of and access
 1-9     to a child, the court shall order the respondent to pay the
1-10     movant's reasonable attorney's fees and all court costs.
1-11           (c)  For good cause shown, the court may waive the
1-12     requirement that the respondent pay attorney's fees and costs if
1-13     the court states the reasons supporting that finding.
1-14           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-15     applies only to a motion for enforcement of a court order providing
1-16     for possession of and access to a child filed on or after that
1-17     date.  A  motion for enforcement filed before the effective date of
1-18     this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the motion
1-19     was filed, and the former law is  continued in effect for that
1-20     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.