1-1     By:  Harris                                           S.B. No. 1739
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 12, 1999; March 15, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Jurisprudence;
 1-4     April 22, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
 1-5     Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 4, Nays 0; April 22, 1999,
 1-6     sent to printer.)
 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 1739                  By:  Harris
 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-9                                   AN ACT
1-10     relating to income withholding for child support arrearages.
1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12           SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 158.003, Family Code, is
1-13     amended to read as follows:
1-14           (b)  The additional amount to be withheld for arrearages
1-15     shall be an amount sufficient to discharge those arrearages [in not
1-16     more than two years or an additional 20 percent added to the amount
1-17     of the current monthly support order, whichever amount will result
1-18     in the arrearages being discharged] in the least amount of time.
1-19           SECTION 2.  Section 158.004, Family Code, is amended to read
1-20     as follows:
1-21           Sec. 158.004.  WITHHOLDING FOR ARREARAGES WHEN NO CURRENT
1-22     SUPPORT IS DUE.  If current support is no longer owed, the court
1-23     shall order that income be withheld for arrearages, including
1-24     accrued interest as provided in Chapter 157, in an amount
1-25     sufficient to discharge those arrearages in the least amount of
1-26     time [not more than two years].
1-27           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-28     applies only to an order or portion of a decree providing for
1-29     income withholding for child support that is rendered on or after
1-30     that date.  An order or decree rendered before the effective date
1-31     of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date that the
1-32     order or decree was rendered, and the former law is continued in
1-33     effect for that purpose.
1-34           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-35     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-36     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-37     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-38     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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