By Dunnam                                             H.B. No. 3497
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to certain requirements for the appeal of a hearing
 1-3     officer's decision in a workers' compensation proceeding.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 410.202, Labor Code, is amended by adding
 1-6     Subsections (d) and (e) to read as follows:
 1-7           (d)  Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays listed in Section
 1-8     662.003, Government Code, are not included in a computation of the
 1-9     time in which a request for an appeal under Subsection (a) or a
1-10     response under Subsection (b) must be filed.
1-11           (e)  The commission by rule may provide for the extension of
1-12     the time for filing a request for an appeal under Subsection (a) or
1-13     a response under Subsection (b) if good cause is shown by the party
1-14     seeking the extension.
1-15           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-16           (b)  The change in law made by this Act applies only to a
1-17     request for an appeal in a workers' compensation proceeding filed
1-18     on or after the effective date of this Act.  A request for an
1-19     appeal filed before the effective date of this Act is governed by
1-20     the law in effect on the date the appeal was filed, and the former
1-21     law is continued in effect for that purpose.
1-22           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-23     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-24     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-1     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-2     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.