We continue to drink from the firehose of bill action alerts so that you don’t have to. Here’s what we’ve gleaned from the past 48 hours of activity.
Floor calendars
Bills up for debate on the House floor this week include (in order of consideration):
Monday, May 3
- HB 20 by Murr reforming bail bond practices
- HB 818 by Cole expanding harassment offense to include certain social media conduct
- HB 4240 by Raymond authorizing local ordinances for enforcing child custody orders
- HB 2702 by Landgraf relating to the statewide protective order registry
- HB 2505 by Smith criminalizing boating while intoxicated with child passenger
- HB 4505 by Meza limiting inquiries into a pregnant woman’s use of drugs
Tuesday, May 4
- HB 1340 by Leach limiting application of the death penalty to law of parties cases
- HB 2924 by Dutton limiting involuntary parent-child terminations by CPS
- HB 1509 by Murphy enhancing punishments for certain repeat misdemeanants
- HB 1193 by Wu relating to sealing certain juvenile records
- HB 246 by Murr relating to the prosecution of improper educator-student relationships
- HB 1374 by Minjarez creating an evidentiary privilege for sexual assault counselors
- HB 368 by Sherman authorizing alias addresses on prosecutors’ driver’s licenses
- HB 2308 by Gates relating to certain procedures in CPS actions
All the bills calendared for debate on the House floor can be found here.
The Senate Intent Calendar for the first part of this week includes the following bills that may be debated by the full Senate:
- SB 504 by Miles (fire marshal inspection of group homes and assisted living facilities)
- SB 508 by West (witness protection program)
- SB 1616 by Bettencourt (limiting local governments’ authority during disasters)
All the bills calendared for possible consideration on the Senate floor can be found here; the list changes daily, so check back for updates as needed.
Committee notices
Below are some relevant committee notices for bills to be heard later this week. For a full agenda of all the bills to be heard at each meeting listed below, please click the link in the committee’s name below; the text of each individual bill will be accessible on that notice by clicking the bill number. For Monday’s agenda, see our previous update.
Tuesday, May 4
Senate Criminal Justice – 8:30 a.m., Capitol Extension Hearing Room E1.016
HB 103 by Landgraf/Zaffirini establishing the Texas Active Shooter Alert System
HB 402 by Hernandez/Alvarado allowing the use of forfeiture funds to provide services to victims of human trafficking
HB 569 by Sanford/West increasing lay-out credits
HB 1071 by Harris/Whitmire regulating the use of courtroom therapy animals
HB 1401 by A. Johnson/Huffman authorizing electronic notice in certain juvenile matters
HB 1419 by Hull/Alvarado relating to use of the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System
SB 1388 by Creighton criminalizing the unlawful disclosure of autopsy photos and related images
SB 1486 by Hughes repealing local government’s authority to adopt juvenile curfews
House County Affairs – 10:30 a.m. or upon adj., E2.020
SB 476 by Nelson mandating the establishment of county sexual assault response teams
Wednesday, May 5
House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence – 8:00 a.m., E2.014
HJR 165 by Jetton granting the State Commission on Judicial Conduct more power over judicial candidates
SB 1458 by Zaffirini mandating standardized protective order forms and materials
SB 1923 by Zaffirini relating to criminal court costs, fines, and fees
SJR 47 by Huffman changing the constitutional eligibility for certain judicial offices
Thursday, May 6
House Homeland Security & Public Safety – 10:30 a.m. or upon adj., E2.010
SB 68 by Miles creating a duty for officers to intervene and report uses of excessive force
SB 912 by Buckingham increasing penalties for various riot-related conduct
SB 2212 by West creating a duty for officers to request and render aid to certain injured persons
More “Quotes of the Week”
“People today have a gummy bear, or a pen or a brownie or whatever. The way the law was written, all of those are automatically felony offenses, so a 17-year-old kid with a vape pen is now looking at … a second-degree felony.”
—State Rep. Joe Moody (D-El Paso), explaining why the Republican-controlled House passed his HB 2593 to punish THC concentrate cases more like marijuana.
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