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.