Highlights of the 79th Texas Legislature - Senate

VETERAN AND MILITARY AFFAIRS
• making certain procedural changes;
• granting a grandparent or other person standing to seek managing conservatorship in certain situations;
• clarifying which persons are entitled to service of citation in suits affecting parent-child relationships;
• authorizing a court to decline to honor a mediated settlement agreement in certain circumstances;
• setting out when a child may be interviewed by the court in chambers; and
• setting out how long a court retains jurisdiction regarding child support.
Adds provisions regarding possession of or access to a child during the military deployment of the child's possessory
or a joint managing conservator who does not have the exclusive right to designate the child's primary residence:
• Authorizes a court to:
• permit the conservator to designate a person who may exercise limited possession of the child during
any period that the conservator is deployed outside of the United States; and
• provide for limited possession of the child by the designated person, if in the best interest of the child.
• Provides that after the deployed parent returns, the designated person's right to limited possession is
terminated.
• States that the military deployment outside this country of such possessory or joint managing conservator is
a material and substantial change of circumstances sufficient to justify a court's modification of an existing
court order regarding the possession of or access to a child.
• Authorizes a court, if the court determines that modification is in the best interest of the child, to modify the
order to provide for limited possession by a person designated by the deployed conservator during the
period of the deployment.
Concealed Handgun Licenses for Military Personnel—H.B. 322
By Representative Hupp et al.—Senate Sponsor: Senator Estes
Currently, all citizens must be at least 21 years old to obtain a concealed handgun license. All citizens, except senior
citizens, currently have to pay the full fee for a concealed handgun license. United States military personnel under
the age of 21 cannot legally carry a concealed handgun in Texas and being outside the United States for extended
periods of time leads to the expiration of licenses for those who are eligible to carry a concealed handgun. This bill:
Provides that a person who is at least 18 years of age, but not yet 21 years of age, is eligible for a license to carry a
concealed handgun if the person is a member or veteran of the United States armed forces, including a member or
veteran of the reserves or national guard, or was discharged under honorable conditions, and meets the other
eligibility requirements except for the minimum age required by federal law to purchase a handgun.
Provides that the issuance of a license to carry a concealed handgun to an eligible person does not affect the
person's ability to purchase a handgun or ammunition under federal law.
Requires an applicant for a license to carry a concealed handgun to submit to the director of public safety's designee
two recent color passport photographs of the applicant, except that an applicant who is younger than 21 years of age
must submit two recent color passport photographs in profile of the applicant.
272 HIGHLIGHTS - 79 TH TEXAS LEGISLATURE