By Jackson                                            S.B. No. 1653
         76R7706 JMM-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the modification of a court order providing for
 1-3     possession of or access to a child.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 156.301, Family Code, is amended to read
 1-6     as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 156.301.  GROUNDS FOR MODIFICATION OF POSSESSION AND
 1-8     ACCESS.  The court may modify an order that sets the terms and
 1-9     conditions for possession of or access to a child or that
1-10     prescribes the relative rights, privileges, duties, and powers of
1-11     conservators if:
1-12                 (1)  the circumstances of the child or a person
1-13     affected by the order have materially and substantially changed
1-14     since the date of the rendition of the order;
1-15                 (2)  the order has become unworkable or inappropriate
1-16     under existing circumstances;
1-17                 (3)  the notice of change of a conservator's residence
1-18     required by Chapter 105 [153] was not given or there was a change
1-19     in a conservator's residence to a place outside this state; [or]
1-20                 (4)  a conservator has repeatedly failed to give notice
1-21     of an inability to exercise possessory rights; or
1-22                 (5)  a conservator of the child has a significant
1-23     history of alcohol or drug abuse.
1-24           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
 2-1     applies only to a motion to modify an order or portion of a decree
 2-2     providing for possession of or access to a child on or after that
 2-3     date.  A motion filed before the effective date of this Act is
 2-4     governed by the law in effect on the date the motion was filed, and
 2-5     the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
 2-6           (b)  The enactment of this Act does not by itself constitute
 2-7     a material and substantial change of circumstances sufficient to
 2-8     warrant modification of a court order or portion of a decree that
 2-9     provides for possession of or access to a child rendered before the
2-10     effective date of this Act.
2-11           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-12     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-13     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-14     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-15     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.