By:  Harris                                           S.B. No. 1739
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to income withholding for child support arrearages.
 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-3           SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 158.003, Family Code, is
 1-4     amended to read as follows:
 1-5           (b)  The additional amount to be withheld for arrearages
 1-6     shall be an amount sufficient to discharge those arrearages [in not
 1-7     more than two years or an additional 20 percent added to the amount
 1-8     of the current monthly support order, whichever amount will result
 1-9     in the arrearages being discharged] in the least amount of time.
1-10           SECTION 2.  Section 158.004, Family Code, is amended to read
1-11     as follows:
1-12           Sec. 158.004.  WITHHOLDING FOR ARREARAGES WHEN NO CURRENT
1-13     SUPPORT IS DUE.  If current support is no longer owed, the court
1-14     shall order that income be withheld for arrearages, including
1-15     accrued interest as provided in Chapter 157, in an amount
1-16     sufficient to discharge those arrearages in the least amount of
1-17     time [not more than two years].
1-18           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-19     applies only to an order or portion of a decree providing for
1-20     income withholding for child support that is rendered on or after
1-21     that date.  An order or decree rendered before the effective date
1-22     of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date that the
1-23     order or decree was rendered, and the former law is continued in
1-24     effect for that purpose.
 2-1           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-2     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-3     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-4     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-5     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.