Marriage Strengthening Bill: Key to “Happily Ever After”
Rep. Warren Chisum (R-Pampa) has filed a marriage strengthening bill, HB 480, which we are strongly supporting and will be working to help it become law through every part of the legislative process. The bill has a simple and extremely important goal: keep marriages together when kids are involved.
Click here to read to excellent article by Ashley Sanchez in today’s AAS.
http://tinyurl.com/andl6j
HB 480 applies to person(s) seeking a no-fault divorce (the legal term is “insupportability”) who have underage children. At least one spouse would have to show proof that they have taken a marriage education course along with their divorce petition, in order to be able to file such a petition. Any marriage with evidence of domestic violence is exempted.
This effort to strengthen and save marriages will be a great addition to the law passed in 2007, also by Rep. Chisum and supported by Free Market Foundation, which gives couples the option to take a pre-marriage education course in order to waive the $60 state marriage license fee.
We know that not only is family breakdown filled with emotional “costs” to the adults and the kids, we also know it has a staggering effect of costing Texas taxpayers $3 billion a year. Click here for more details. http://freemarketblog.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/texas-taxpayers-footing-3-billion-for-family-breakdown/
We believe this legislation will go a long way in saving taxpayer dollars (we need every penny we can get in these tough economic times!) and saving marriages. The result will be healthier parents, healthier kids, and a healthier Texas.