Bill Text: TX HB161 | 2017-2018 | 85th Legislature | Introduced

Texas House Bill 161 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Relating to the child support obligation of an obligor during the obligor's confinement in jail or prison.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2017-05-09 - Received from the House [HB161 Detail]

Download: Texas-2017-HB161-Introduced.html

	85R610 KSD-D

	By: Dutton	H.B. No. 161



	A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
	AN ACT
	relating to the child support obligation of an obligor during the
	obligor's confinement in jail or prison.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
	SECTION 1. Section 157.162, Family Code, is amended by
	adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:
	(d) The court may not find a respondent in contempt of court
	for failure to pay child support if the respondent or the
	respondent's attorney appears at the hearing with evidence
	satisfactory to the court showing that:
	(1) the unpaid child support accrued during the
	obligor's confinement in a local, state, or federal jail or prison
	for a period of at least 90 consecutive days, other than
	confinement:
	(A) for an offense constituting an act of family
	violence, as defined by Section 71.004, committed against the
	obligee or a child covered by the child support order; or
	(B) resulting from the obligor's failure to
	comply with a child support order; and
	(2) the obligor did not have sufficient resources
	available to comply with the child support order during the period
	of the obligor's confinement.
	SECTION 2. Section 157.162(d), Family Code, as added by
	this Act, applies to a hearing to enforce an order in a suit
	affecting the parent-child relationship that commences on or after
	the effective date of this Act. A hearing that commences before the
	effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the
	date the hearing commenced, and the former law is continued in
	effect for that purpose.
	SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2017.