HBA-GUM C.S.S.B. 996 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.S.B. 996
By: Lindsay
Human Services
4/9/1999
Committee Report (Substituted)



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Under current law the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services
(department) pays the funeral expenses when a child in the department's
managing conservatorship dies in foster care. C.S.S.B. 996 requires the
department to request the parents of the child to pay for reasonable and
necessary funeral expenses of the child.  In addition, the substitute
provides that resources used to pay a funeral expense include the child's
insurance policies or bank accounts.  This substitute also provides that if
the parents cannot pay all or part of the funeral expenses, that the
department shall pay such expenses. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Amends Section 264.012, Family Code, as follows:

(a)  Requires the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services
(department) to request that the parents pay reasonable and necessary
funeral expenses for a child for whom the department has been appointed
managing conservator and who dies in foster care,  including a request that
if the parents have an insurance policy or bank account for the child, that
the parents spend the proceeds form the policy or money in the account on
the funeral expenses. Requires, rather than authorizes, the department to
pay the funeral expenses if the parents cannot pay all or part of the
funeral expenses.   

(b)  Authorizes the department to accept donations, gifts, or in-kind
contributions to cover the costs of any funeral expenses under this
section. 

(c)  Provides that this section does not apply to a foster parent.

SECTION 2.  Effective date: September 1, 1999.

SECTION 3.  Emergency clause.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE

The substitute modifies the original in SECTION 1, by reorganizing text
into Subsections (a) and (b), and creating Subsections (c) from new text.
The substitute  modifies the original by providing that the request to pay
funeral expenses under this Act is made to the parents, rather than the
biological parents, of a child described by this Act.  In addition, the
substitute modifies the original in Subsection (a) by specifying that if
the parents have an insurance policy or a bank account, rather than a
savings account, that the proceeds from the policy or money in the account
be spent on the funeral expenses.  The substitute also modifies the
original by providing that the department spend appropriated funds for the
child's funeral expenses if the parents cannot pay all or part of the
funeral expenses, rather than all of the funeral expenses.  

 The substitute modifies the original by creating Subsection (b) in SECTION
1, relating to the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services's
authorization to accept donations, gifts, or inkind contributions to cover
the costs of, rather than expenses in relation to, any funeral expenses
under this Act. 

The substitute also modifies the original by creating Subsection (c) in
SECTION 1 to provide that this section (Funeral Expenses For Child In
Foster Care) does not apply to a foster parent.  This provision does not
appear in the original. 

Futhermore, the substitute modifies the original in SECTION 1 to make
conforming and nonsubstantive changes.