By:  Brown                                            S.B. No. 1394
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to a joint managing conservator's or possessory
 1-2     conservator's access to a child on the telephone.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter F, Chapter 153, Family Code, is
 1-5     amended by adding Section 153.318 to read as follows:
 1-6           Sec. 153.318.  TELEPHONE ACCESS.  (a)  On the request of a
 1-7     joint managing conservator or possessory conservator, the court
 1-8     shall include in the possession order that the conservator shall
 1-9     have access to the child on the telephone during a specified time
1-10     each week.  The order shall specify:
1-11                 (1)  the day of the week for the telephone access;
1-12                 (2)  the time that the child must be made available for
1-13     telephone access; and
1-14                 (3)  the procedure the managing conservator must follow
1-15     if the child will not be available during the designated time for
1-16     telephone access.
1-17           (b)  In addition to the access provided for in Subsection
1-18     (a), unless the managing conservator providing for the primary
1-19     residence for the child can show that the requirement would cause
1-20     undue financial hardship, the court shall order the managing
1-21     conservator to have a telephone answering device or service to
1-22     receive or record messages to the child from the possessory
1-23     conservator.
1-24           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
 2-1     applies to an order or portion of a decree providing for possession
 2-2     of or access to a child that is rendered on or after that date.  An
 2-3     order rendered before the effective date of this Act is governed by
 2-4     the law that existed on the date the order was rendered, and the
 2-5     former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
 2-6           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-7     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-8     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-9     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-10     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.