89R5007 BEE-D
By: Menéndez S.B. No. 738
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the use of unclaimed lottery prize money to benefit the
child-care services program administered by the Texas Workforce
Commission.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 466.408(b), Government Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(b) If a claim is not made for prize money on or before the
180th day after the date on which the winner was selected, the prize
money shall be used in the following order of priority:
(1) subject to legislative appropriation, not more
than $20 million in prize money each year may be deposited to the
Department of State Health Services state-owned multicategorical
teaching hospital account, which is an account in the general
revenue fund, or appropriated from that account to provide indigent
health care services as specified in Chapter 61, Health and Safety
Code;
(2) not more than $5 million in prize money each year
may be appropriated to the Health and Human Services Commission and
shall be used to support the provision of inpatient hospital
services in hospitals located in the 15 counties that comprise the
Texas-Mexico border area, with payment for those services to be not
less than the amount established under the Tax Equity and Fiscal
Responsibility Act of 1982 (TEFRA) cost reimbursement methodology
for the hospital providing the services;
(3) [the remaining amount,] not more than [to exceed]
$5 million in prize money in each state fiscal year less any amount
deposited in the fund in that year attributable to the lottery game
operated under Section 466.027[,] shall be deposited to the fund
for veterans' assistance; [and]
(4) the remaining amount, not to exceed $5 million in
prize money in each state fiscal year, shall be deposited to the
general revenue fund for appropriation only to fund the child-care
services program administered by the Texas Workforce Commission;
and
(5) all prize money subject to this section and not
deposited or appropriated in accordance with Subdivision (1), (2),
[or] (3), or (4) shall be deposited to the credit of the foundation
school fund.
SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act to Section
466.408, Government Code, applies only to an unclaimed prize for a
lottery game for which the winner was selected on or after the
effective date of this Act. An unclaimed prize for which the winner
was selected before the effective date of this Act is governed by
the law as it existed immediately before the effective date of this
Act, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.