January 13, 2010

Lt. Governor Dewhurst has publicly released the list of issues to be studied by Senate committees before the 82nd Legislature convenes in January 2011.  For a full list of those issues, click here.

November 20, 2009

Speaker Joe Straus released a list of issues to be studied by House committees in preparation for the 82nd Regular Session (2011).  The full list of topics can be found by clicking HERE.

Senate interim charges are expected before the end of the year; keep checking our Legislative page for updates.

June 9, 2009

Sine die
The 81st Regular Session has adjourned sine die (Latin for "without day," meaning without any future date being designated to reconvene). During the past 140 days, the 81st Legislature sent roughly 1,460 bills to the Governor for his consideration. That number probably represents one "zero" more than needed to be passed, but that's the nature of the game in Austin. Of those bills that successfully ran the legislative gauntlet, at least 250 of them (and maybe more) will affect district and county attorneys in some form or fashion. Even though we have been following many of those bills throughout the process, some of them were being changed right up until the final moment of passage, so it is going to take us some time before we have a good grip on what laws did and did not change (and whether we got hornswoggled on any issues when we were watching something else). While we work on that, here is a summary of some of the issues we were following for you (in alphabetical order, for lack of a better system):

Asset forfeiture reform
Dead. SB 1529 (Whitmire/Gallego) was killed when House Democrats "chubbed" the voter ID bill to death. The text of the bill was then amended onto HB 1320 (Christian/Ellis), the cockfighting bill, but that also failed to pass. The only changes of note to CCP Chapter 59 ended up being a few additions to the list of what constitutes contraband.

Budget
The legislature adopted a $182.3 billion budget for the 2010-2011 biennium, which is $12.6 billion (7.4%) larger than the 2008-2009 budget. Early predictions of a multi-billion dollar shortfall were proven wrong, but only because the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (federal stimulus) poured billions of dollars into Texas at just the right time. This infusion of cash guaranteed that the basic line items affecting prosecutors--salaries, state supplements, assistant longevity pay, travel, and apportionment funding--remained intact. Included in the list of beneficiaries of the state's largesse were several border security projects to provide for more DPS troopers, more Texas Rangers, a new Joint Operations and Intelligence Center and Border Operations Center, and a new Governor's Regional Center for Operations and Intelligence. (We will work with our friends at DPS and the Governor's Office to flesh out how these programs will coordinate with prosecutors.) Another bright spot was the recognition that all this extra police work on the border will mean more work for Texas prosecutors; to that end, the budget includes $4 million in the border security package for prosecution resources. Prosecutors who deal with border-related issues will be gathering shortly to talk about how to best use these resources; if you have more questions about that, call Rob Kepple.

Criminal discovery procedures
No major changes. HB 1360 (Anchia/West) clarifies that having an open file policy does not waive any confidentiality protections under the Public Information Act, and SB 595 (Hegar/Gallego) provides new protections from release for evidence of child pornography, but nothing else of note passed.

Criminal street gangs
SB 11 (Carona/Miklos), the omnibus anti-gang bill, died in the House dispute over voter ID, but large parts of it survived and passed as amendments to HB 2086 (Moody/Carona). The Legislature also finally got around to fixing the conflicts between two similar gang solicitation bills by reconciling them in HB 2187 (Moody/Carona).

Death penalty
No substantive changes here; none of the death penalty bills we followed this session crossed the finish line except for SB 1091 (Ellis/Gallego), which creates an Office of Capital Writs in Austin, and some other bills addressed appointment of counsel issues.

DWI blood draws
Big, big changes here. SB 261 (Deuell/Gattis) died in the House Chub-A-Thon, but the text of the bill was amended onto SB 328 (Carona/Phillips) and passed. Assuming it survives review by the Governor, the new law could dramatically increase law enforcement's ability to obtain blood evidence in certain DWI cases. Be sure to come to our legislative updates this summer to learn more about it.

Expunctions and deferred adjudication
No changes were made to the general laws governing deferred adjudication, despite multiple attempts to do so. Dozens of expunction-related bills were also filed this session, most of which failed to pass, but among the survivors were HB 3481 (Veasey/Harris), a bill designed to address the Beam case and related statute of limitation issues (although it goes well beyond that).

Eyewitness identification
SB 117 (Ellis/Gallego) failed to pass, a victim of the debate over other issues--or as one observer put it, "They chose voter ID over eyewitness ID."

Family violence
Among the bills dealing with family violence (FV) offenses that passed this session were: HB 1506 (Herrero/Hinojosa) relating to the electronic monitoring of FV defendants on bond; HB 2066 (Gallego/Nelson) increasing penalties for FV assault involving strangulation or suffocation; and HB 2240 (Lewis/Nelson) creating the new offense of Continuous Violence Against the Family, an assault-oriented crime similar to the Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child offense created by Jessica's Law last session. Among the FV bills that failed to pass were two protective order changes: SB 843 (Uresti/Castro) authorizing protective orders against certain third-parties, and HB 853 (Laubenberg/Uresti) adding pets within the scope of a protective order.

Innocence commission
HB 498 (McClendon/Ellis) passed and is awaiting a decision by the Governor. The final version of the bill creates the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions housed within the Task Force on Indigent Defense (TFID). That panel is charged with helping the TFID conduct a study on various innocence-related issues, including whether the state should create a "real" innocence commission. The 10-member panel will consist of the TFID executive director, two senators, two representatives, the TCDLA executive director, the TDCAA president, a judge from the CCA, a representative of a law school, and someone from the governor's office. (Do the math yourself to predict the probable outcome of future votes.) This was one of the more controversial bills to pass this session, so feel free to contact us if you want further information about its eventual fate.

Human trafficking
SB 89 (Van de Putte/Thompson) was another victim of the House meltdown over voter ID, but the text of the bill was amended onto HB 4009 (Weber/Van de Putte) and passed into law.

Journalist shield
HB 670 (Martinez Fischer/Ellis) was signed by the Governor and became law on May 13. It's already been used at least once in Nueces County to prevent the State from subpoenaing a TV reporter to testify about an interview of a defendant that she recorded. Look for a detailed analysis of the new law in the July/August issue of the Texas Prosecutor.

Local control of prosecution
The various legislative threats to prosecutors' constitutional authority are all dead. (No, really. We can finally say that without equivocation. Well, at least until next session.) SB 1065/HB 1618 (Williams/Pena) to create a civil racketeering cause of action for the AG? Dead. HB 566/HB 1400 (Christian) to give public integrity jurisdiction to the AG? Dead. HB 778 (S. Miller) to give campaign finance jurisdiction to the AG? Dead. ("Marmalard?" "Dead!" "Niedermeyer? ...")

Post-conviction litigation
SB 1864 (Ellis/Hochberg), which would have removed some existing impediments to requesting post-conviction DNA testing, was a victim of the voter ID debacle, as was SB 1976 (Whitmire/Gallego), which would have created a new ground for a subsequent application for a writ of habeas corpus based upon certain types of expert testimony.

Recording of custodial interrogations
SB 116 (Ellis/Farrar) failed to pass, yet another victim of the fight over voter ID.

Sex offenders
This issue was not nearly as popular this session as last (see, e.g., Jessica's Law). In fact, SB 2035 (Shapiro), the law to bring Texas into compliance with federal sex offender registration mandates, never even received a public hearing. However, some sex offender-related bills did pass, including: SB 2048 (Williams/Riddle) authorizing a centralized sex offender registration authority in certain counties; HB 2153 (Edwards/Ellis) addressing homeless sex offenders and other registrants who frequently fall between the cracks of the current system; and HB 3148 (T. Smith/West) permitting de-registration for certain young offenders.

Specialty courts
"Veterans courts" may be coming soon to a county near you. SB 112 (Ellis/Vaught) died, but the concept was passed as a part of SB 1940 (Van de Putte/Ortiz), an unrelated veterans' bill.

State schools
The Legislature passed SB 643 (Nelson/Rose) to help clean up the state school system (whose institutions are now to be known as "state-supported learning centers," by the way). Among the interesting amendments to this bill was text from HB 597 (Hughes) adding disabled individuals to the scope of the outcry statute's hearsay exception.

Sunset bills
If there is a special session, it will be in part because the Legislature failed to pass sunset reauthorization bills for the Departments of Insurance and Transportation (along with several other agencies). Fortunately, the sunset bills for DPS--HB 2730 (Kolkhorst/Hinojosa)--and TYC & TJPC--HB 3689 (McClendon/Hinojosa)--both passed without too much collateral damage being done in the form of last-minute amendments (as far as we can tell). It will take some time to review those lengthy bills, but we'll let you know if we find any surprises hidden in them.

What's next
Now that legislators have gone home, the Governor takes center stage. His staff must review every bill that has been passed and decide whether to sign it, veto it, or let it become law without his signature. If the Governor decides to veto a bill, he must do so by Sunday, June 21 (a.k.a. Father's Day, a.k.a. the first day of summer). Any bill not vetoed by then will become law according to its prescribed effective date.  If you want the Governor to sign or veto a bill, contact Rob or Shannon for tips on how to make an effective presentation.

Summer Updates
Remember, TDCAA's 2009 Legislative Update will be coming to 18 cities across Texas this summer. To register, go HERE and click on your preferred date and location. The cost is $75 for TDCAA members who pre-register up to one week before the training and $100 for non-TDCAA members or members who register less than one week before the training (including on-site registration the day of the training). Attendees will also get a free copy of our popular Legislative Update book. Attendance at some locations may be limited, so don't delay!

Coming soon: new code books!
In addition to our regional legislative seminars this summer, updated versions of the spiral-bound Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure, the annotated Criminal Laws of Texas, and all other code books are in the works. Barring a special session, those books are due back from the printer around mid-August, so pre-order yours today for fastest delivery. To place an order, see the updated publications order form on the publications page of this website, or look for an order form for the new code books in a TDCAA Legislative Update brochure. For questions, call or email Sales Manager Andrew Smith.

Quote of the week

"I thought I was watching an episode of Lost."
--Gov. Rick Perry, describing his reaction to the Legislature's failure to save several state agencies from potential dissolution on the final day of the session.

Posted April 17, 2009

Now that committee hearings are occurring with little warning, the best way to keep up with them is through the legislature's own webpage.  Click on these links for the latest updates:

House committee postings 

Senate committee postings

February 12, 2009

Speaker Straus released the committee assignments for the 81st Regular Session.  For a list of assignments by committee, click here:

http://www.house.state.tx.us/committees/assignments/81/committee.pdf

For a list of assignments by member, click here: 

http://www.house.state.tx.us/committees/assignments/81/member.pdf

January 30, 2009

The Lite Guv released the Senate committee assignments today (at about 4:50pm, of course).

For the full list, open or download this .PDF file.

There were very few changes from last session's line-up.  Among the highlights:

CRIMINAL JUSTICE: 

Whitmire, Chair; Seliger, Vice-Chair; Carona, Ellis, Hegar, Hinojosa, Patrick (replacing Deuell)

Ogden, Chair; Hinojosa, Vice-Chair (switching with Zaffirini); Averitt, Deuell, Duncan, Eltife, Harris (replacing Fraser), Lucio, Nelson, Seliger (replacing Janek), Shapiro, West, Whitmire, Williams, Zaffirini

Wentworth, Chair; Gallegos, Vice-Chair (switching with Hinojosa); Carona, Duncan, Harris, Hinojosa, Watson

House committees assignments might be out by next Friday -- but don't hurry on our account, Mr. Speaker.