Legislators are already calling each other out in public and retaliating against each other and it’s only their third week in Austin. So much for this being the “Kumbaya Session”!

Senate budget writers go “all in” on human trafficking

This week the Senate Finance Committee began hearing testimony on the Senate’s version of the General Appropriations Act. Once again, hundreds of millions of state dollars will be spent on border security, which should come as no surprise if you follow public polls that show that issue to be a high priority for many Texas voters. However, Chairwoman Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound) also highlighted a significant new proposed state investment in one of the rare bi-partisan policy areas lauded by members of both parties: the fight against human trafficking.

The Senate’s proposed budget includes $89 million for human trafficking prevention and enforcement over the biennium, which is a $64 million dollar (256%) increase over the current budget. The money is spread among seven state agencies: The Office of the Governor, Department of Family and Protective Service, Department of State Health Services, Alcoholic Beverage Commission, Department of Public Safety, Department of Licensing and Regulation, and the Office of the Attorney General.

In fact, the committee chairwoman announced that they had granted every agency request for new funding for human trafficking-related initiatives, including funding for an additional 13 employees (five lawyers and eight support personnel) for the AG’s human trafficking section, as well as the creation of a new Human Trafficking Prevention Coordinating Council to be chaired by the AG and composed of representatives from the seven agencies getting these appropriations. The council’s job will be to develop strategic five-year plans for the prevention of human trafficking and to report back to the legislature with the results of these expenditures—because make no mistake, the legislature expects those various state agencies to show some good results when they appropriate this much money on a specific issue.

That can also result in state agencies feeling that they must take greater ownership and control over those issues in order to show those results. We’ll have more information for you in the coming weeks on what that might look like in the area of human trafficking investigations and prosecutions, but for now, just note that if you were wondering whether policymaker’s attention on this issue was wavering over the years, we think the senate’s proposed budget provides your answer; now go make good use of that information.

House committee assignments

The speaker has released his committee assignments, and—as to be expected in the wake of the first change in House leadership in a decade—there could be some shake-ups in how that chamber conducts its business this session.

We spend most of our time in the House working with the following committees, so read on to see who will be making the important decisions affecting your business this session:

Appropriations: John Zerwas (R-Fulshear), chair; Oscar Longoria (D-Mission), vice-chair; Cecil Bell (R-Magnolia), Greg Bonnen (R-Friendswood), Brad Buckley (R-Killeen), Giovanni Capriglione (R-Southlake), Philip Cortez (D-San Antonio), Sarah Davis (R-Houston), Mary Gonzalez (D-Clint), Cole Hefner (R-Mt. Pleasant), Donna Howard (D-Austin), Jarvis Johnson (D-Houston), Rick Miller (R-Sugar Land), Ina Minjarez (D-San Antonio), Sergio Munoz (D-Mission), Toni Rose (D-Dallas), Matt Schaefer (R-Tyler), J.D. Sheffield (R-Gatesville), Carl Sherman (D-DeSoto), Reggie Smith (R-Sherman), Lynn Stucky (R-Sanger), Steve Toth (R-Conroe), John Turner (D-Dallas), Gary VanDeaver (R-New Boston), Armando Walle (D-Houston), Terry Wilson (R- ), Gene Wu (D-Houston) (Note: the smaller subcommittee for our relevant budget articles will be announced soon).

Calendars (decides what bills get debated on the House floor):Four Price (R-Amarillo), chair; Joe Moody (D-El Paso), vice-chair; Joe Deshotel (D-Beaumont), John Frullo (R-Lubbock), Craig Goldman (R-Fort Worth), Oscar Longoria (D-Mission), Will Metcalf (R-Conroe), Tom Oliverson (R-Houston), Eddie Rodriguez (D-Austin), Toni Rose (D-Dallas), John Wray (R-Waxahachie).

Corrections: James White (R-Hillister), chair; Alma Allen (D-Houston), vice-chair; Ernest Bailes (R-Bailes), Rhetta Andrews Bowers (D-Rowlett), Jay Dean (R-Longview), Victoria Neave (D-Dallas), Carl Sherman (D-DeSoto), Phil Stephenson (R-Wharton).

Criminal Jurisprudence: Nicole Collier (D-Fort Worth), chair; Bill Zedler (R-Arlington), vice-chair; Keith Bell (R-Forney), Jessica Gonzalez (D-Dallas), Todd Hunter (R-Corpus Christi), Phil King (R-Weatherford), Joe Moody (D-El Paso), Andrew Murr (R-Junction), Leo Pacheco (D-San Antonio).

Homeland Security & Public Safety: Poncho Nevarez (D-Eagle Pass), chair; Dennis Paul (R-Webster), vice-chair; DeWayne Burns (R-Cleburne), Gina Calanni (D-Katy), Travis Clardy (R-Nacogdoches), Vikki Goodwin (D-Austin), Celia Israel (D-Austin), Mike Lang (R-Granbury), Tony Tinderholt (R-Arlington).

Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence: Jeff Leach (R-Plano), chair; Jessica Farrar (D-Houston), vice-chair; Yvonne Davis (D-Dallas), Julie Johnson (D-Carrollton), Matt Krause (R-Fort Worth), Morgan Meyer (R-Dallas), Victoria Neave (D-Dallas), Reggie Smith (R-Sherman), James White (R-Hillister).

Juvenile Justice & Family Issues: Harold Dutton (D-Houston), chair; Andrew Murr (R-Junction), vice-chair; Rhetta Andrews Bowers (D-Rowlett), Gina Calanni (D-Katy), John Cyrier (R-Lockhart), Jay Dean (R-Longview), Hugh Shine (R-Temple), James Talarico (D-Round Rock), plus one vacancy TBD.

For a full PDF list of all assignments by committee, click here.
To see where your favorite rep landed, click here.

Committee assignment observations

These House committee assignments have come a full two weeks earlier in the session than last time, which most outside observers take to be an indication of the new speaker’s eagerness to get to work on his primary goals: fixing school finance and property taxes. Earlier assignments theoretically also allow for more bills to be heard and debated in those committees, which can start that work in a few weeks. That’s good news if you’re trying to pass something, but less-good news if you’re trying to stop something.

As for the actual assignments, those who recall the line-ups from last session will note that four of the seven House committees listed above have new chairpersons, so changes to the process are coming—but at this point there is no telling what those changes will look like. For instance, Joe Moody (D-El Paso), the former chairman of the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, was promoted to Speaker Pro Tem, a minister-without-portfolio leadership position most recently held by current Speaker Bonnen. He remains on his old committee, but he will no longer serve as chairman, as that job was assigned to Rep. Nicole Collier (D-Fort Worth), who (for trivia buffs out there) will be the first woman and first African-American to ever hold that position. She is a lawyer—in fact, six of the nine members of that committee are now lawyers, by far the highest percentage in recent history—but only one of them (Moody) regularly practices criminal law.

We point this out only to serve as a good example of the primary effect of new committee assignments: namely, the need to educate members about your issues all over again. Even if you have been working on your pet issue at the Capitol for multiple sessions, new committee assignments mean starting over again at the beginning and building up from there, never assuming that the new committee members share your subject matter knowledge or your mastery of the legislative history on that issue. In other words, it means work. Prepare accordingly.

New bills to watch

Here is another entry highlighting some of the recent filings of interest:

• HB 949 by Minjarez, increasing aggravated assault w/ a deadly weapon resulting in quadriplegia to a first-degree felony
• HB 979 by A. Hernandez, authorizing the collection of DNA samples from certain defendants
• HB 1020 by Moody, requiring law enforcement agencies to adopt model cite-and-release policies
• HB 1029 by Moody, removing certain discovery exemptions for CAC forensic videos
• HB 1030 by Moody, requiring unanimity in death penalty special issues
• SB 387 by Huffman, revising various statutes relating to judicial compensation and retirement
• SB 400 by West, expanding Texas’ Compassionate Use Act to more conditions and more substances
• SB 405 by Birdwell, criminalizing a false report to a jailer or correctional officer
• SB 418 by Miles, prohibiting the death penalty for persons with an intellectual disability
• SB 433 by Hinojosa, recategorizing certain peace officer disciplinary records as public records

To read any bill, go to https://capitol.texas.gov/, enter the bill number in the appropriate field, and click “go”—then on the subsequent webpage, select the tab at the top of the page for the information (history, bill text, actions, authors, etc.) you want. And as always, you can contact Shannon or Rob if you are having trouble finding the information you seek.

Next week

The Senate Finance Committee will review the budget provisions that include assistant prosecutor longevity pay; House committees will hire staff and (hopefully) release the weekly committee schedules so we know when we have to be where each week; and everyone will be speculating about what the governor will proclaim to be emergency issues so that the legislature can start tackling them ahead of the usual 60-day threshold for floor debates.

Legislative rotation sign-up

Contact Shannon for details on how to get involved in the legislative process—even if it is only to get an up-close-and-personal view of the sausage-making for the first time. We still have several slots available for prosecutors to come to Austin and help craft the laws that you must enforce, so check your calendar and find a good time to come to Austin.

Quotes of the Month

“I don’t care what the narrative is out in the blogosphere after these are announced.”

New House Speaker Dennis Bonnen (R-Angleton), prior to the new House committee assignments being read on the House floor earlier this week.

“There’s a stronger control element with him than there was with Straus, and that’s not a criticism. He wants a tight operation and a strong operation.”

Bill Miller, Austin lobbyist and political consultant, comparing the new speaker’s leadership style to that of his predecessor.

“This is a warning to other Republicans, that if you stray from the lieutenant governor’s agenda, there will be a price to pay. And I always knew that, but the other Republicans do now, too.”

State Sen. Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo), on why he thinks he was given less desirable committee assignments this session.

“I could count on one hand how many times people said they have firearms. They could say ‘no’ and feel secure in the fact no one is coming to their house to look.”
—

Jerry Varney, Dallas County Asst. Criminal DA, on why that county’s practice of asking offenders banned from possessing firearms whether they have any that should be relinquished has failed to yield many positive results.

The governor and lieutenant governor were sworn in on Tuesday, and the related pre-parties and post-parties and inaugural balls (including a performance by George Strait) ensured that no one at the capitol was in much of a condition to do any real work this week. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have any news for you! Read on for the details.

Proposed budgets released

The House and Senate both released their initial proposed biennial budgets this week. These baseline budgets are a way for each chamber to signal its priorities heading into the session and they immediately become the starting point for all budget negotiations for the rest of the session.

For the general public, the big news is the various proposals for increased public education funding and property tax relief that you can read about in your local fish wrap. But there are also several items that may be of particular interest to you, which we will break down further as proposed changes shared by both bills, then those that are found only in one version:

Both House and Senate (but amounts may vary): Increased funding for the Border Prosecution Unit, judicial branch CLE education grants, Victim Assistance Grants (through OAG), CPS functions, local mental health outpatient treatment, and indigent defense; less operational funding for TDCJ and TJJD due to declining bed populations.

House only: Increased funding for a 10-percent bump in the judicial benchmark salary (from $140,000 to $154,000), construction projects at San Antonio, Kerrville, and Rusk State Hospitals, prison health care, and as-yet-unnamed school safety programs; still leaves about $3 billion unspent under constitutional spending limits.

Senate only: Increased funding for DPS and OAG to investigate and prosecute human trafficking and anti-gang activities, and for DPS to hire more crime lab analysts; still leaves roughly $7 billion unspent.

Again, these are just some examples of where the budget discussions will begin; nothing is guaranteed except (sometimes dramatic!) changes. The key thing to remember at this stage is that a spending item must be approved by at least one of the two chambers prior to the behind-closed-doors negotiations over the final budget compromise if it is to make it into that final version.

Longevity pay update

One of the major issues for prosecutors this session will be finding a healthier funding vehicle for the assistant prosecutor longevity pay program. For those following the issue, Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa (D-McAllen) has filed SB 353 as a placeholder or “shell” bill for any statutory changes that may need to be made once a solution is identified and agreed upon. (In other words, the language currently in the bill will be changed as it moves forward, so don’t worry about the details right now.) We will continue to provide you updates on this very important topic as they develop. Meanwhile, if you have questions about any of this, contact Rob.

Senate committee assignments

The lite guv released his committee assignments. To see where your favorite senator landed, click here.

We spend most of our time in the Senate dealing with bills in these committees, so read these lists to discover who your new best friends will be for the next five months:

Senate Finance: Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound), chair; Chuy Hinojosa (D-McAllen), vice-chair; Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston), Brian Birdwell (R-Granbury), Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels), Pete Flores (R-Pleasanton), Kelly Hancock (R-North Richland Hills), Joan Huffman (R-Houston), Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham), Robert Nichols (R-Jacksonville), Charles Perry (R-Lubbock), Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood), Kirk Watson (D-Austin), Royce West (D-Dallas), John Whitmire (D-Houston).

Senate Criminal Justice: John Whitmire (D-Houston), chair; Joan Huffman (R-Houston), vice-chair; Dawn Buckingham (R-Lakeway), Pete Flores (R-Pleasanton), Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola), Borris Miles (D-Houston), Charles Perry (R-Lubbock).

Senate State Affairs: Joan Huffman (R-Houston), chair; Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola), vice-chair; Brian Birdwell (R- Granbury), Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe), Pat Fallon (R-Prosper), Bob Hall (R-Canton), Eddie Lucio, Jr. (D-Brownsville), Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound), Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo).

New bills to watch

Here is another entry highlighting some of the recent filings of interest:

• HB 745 by Rose, amending the duties and powers of peace officers
• HB 746 by Rose, authorizing needle exchange programs in certain urban counties
• HB 753 by Wu, reducing POM < 0.35 oz (aka 10g) to a Class C misdemeanor
• HB 756 by Wu, allowing a defendant to waive jury punishment over the State’s objection
• HB 758 by Wu, expanding public access to juvenile court proceedings
• HB 887 by Thompson, limiting an officer’s right to self-defense in officer-involved shootings
• HB 903 by Lozano, revising elements of the offense of smuggling of persons
• SB 332 by West, relating to the public release of law enforcement video footage
• SB 341 by Huffman, prohibiting the appointment of non-prosecutors as attorneys pro tem
• SB 342 by Huffman, revising the elements of unlawful disclosure of intimate visual material

To read any bill, go to https://capitol.texas.gov/, enter the bill number in the appropriate field, and click “go”—then on the subsequent webpage, select the tab at the top of the page for the information (history, bill text, actions, authors, etc.) you want. And as always, you can contact Shannon or Rob if you are having trouble finding the information you seek.

Roundtable discussion on marijuana

There are numerous proposals this session dealing with the legal status of marijuana. This is not just a state issue, but a national one as well—and that national debate seems to be getting more heated as it wades into discussions of prohibition, public health, racially-disparate impacts, taxation, and corporate greed, among other topics. If you want to read a good debate between experts on various sides of this issue—and yes, there are more than just two sides—check out this recent roundtable discussion hosted by the non-profit criminal justice news outlet the Marshall Project: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2019/01/14/how-dangerous-is-marijuana-really.

Next week

Senate committees are out, so now everyone is sitting around waiting for House committee assignments to be released. Until that happens, don’t look for much action on anything in the lower chamber. (But remember, that is a feature of the system at this stage of session, not a bug.) Meanwhile, the Senate Finance Committee will start holding hearings on their budget this Tuesday, and awaaaaaaaaaaaay they go!

Legislative rotation sign-up

Please contact Shannon for details on how to get involved in the legislative process—even if it is only to get an up-close-and-personal view of the sausage-making for the first time. We still have several slots available on a first-come, first-served basis, so check your calendar and find a good time to come to Austin. Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease at the Capitol, so don’t be shy!

New CCP Chapters 18A and 18B

As of January 1, 2019, former Code of Criminal Procedure articles 18.20 and 18.21 have been recodified as new CCP Chapters 18A (Detection, Interception, and Use of Wire, Oral, and Electronic Communications) and 18B (Installation and Use of Tracking Equipment; Access to Communications). These non-substantive reorganizations were passed via HB 2931 (2017) and are not intended to make any substantive changes, but it is still important to make sure all your paperwork and practices comply with these newly-organized laws. Visit this page of our website for a PDF version of the new CCP chapters, along with a source and disposition chart for each chapter (which is also included as Appendix A of the new 2018 version of our Warrants Manual).

Quotes of the Month

“With the teamwork we have between the Senate and the House, this is going to be the greatest session ever in the history of Texas.”

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (R-Houston), during his inaugural address after being sworn in this week.

“The Austin lobby, by and large, gives for influence and access, it doesn’t give due to ideological affinities. When it was clear that Dennis Bonnen would become speaker, Dennis Bonnen became one of the three most powerful politicians in Texas and therefore someone that every lobbyist — from the left to the right, from clean energy to oil and coal, from beer distributors to craft breweries — everyone wants to be on his good side.”

Mark Jones, a Rice University political scientist, on the news that the new House speaker collected almost $4 million in campaign donations in the four-week period after he announced he had secured the votes necessary to win the speaker’s race.

“The new methods [of making methamphetamine] have really altered the potency, so the meth we’re looking at today is much more potent than it was 10 years ago.”

Jane Maxwell, research professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s social work school, in an article explaining why meth is making a comeback.

“The idea that it’s going to be in this balm or that balm, I don’t know what the scientific basis for that is. … The people who are talking the loudest about CBD don’t have a scientific background. They are marketers and advertisers, and they have done a hell of a job.”

Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), on the recent proliferation of unregulated low-dose CBD-based health products.

“It saves lives. It deters people at all BAC levels from drinking. And it separates drinking from driving.”

Bella Dinh-Zarr, a member of the National Traffic Safety Board, on the benefits of lowering per se blood alcohol content (BAC) standards from 0.08 to 0.05, as Utah recently did.

“Maybe I can have more success at the legislative level to get somebody to understand that there are some real true problems [with the death penalty].”

Former Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Elsa Alcala, who recently accepted a job as public policy director for the Texas Defender Service.

New Speaker

As predicted, State Rep. Dennis Bonnen (R-Angleton) was elected by his peers to lead the House as speaker this session. Now that the formalities are over, he can finish getting his staff in place and start the all-important job of deciding who gets assigned to which committee and, even more importantly, who on those committees will wield the gavel from the middle chair. These assignments are important because the committees and their chairmen determine the fate of most legislation during a session. Committees generally must wait until the session’s 30th day to hear bills (unless the bill concerns the state budget or the topic of the bill has been designated an emergency by the governor), but the sooner the committee assignments are made, the sooner everyone else can start pestering those committee members to file their pet bills.

We don’t have any inside information on the timing of this announcement, but we’re guessing House committee assignments will come out at the end of either next week or the following week, while in the Senate (which is not under new leadership and has fewer new members), the committee assignments should come out as soon this afternoon, or if not, probably no later than the end of next week. (Why the end of the week? Good question. The answer is that dumping the news after the final adjournment for the week helps the speaker or lite guv get a head start and be far from Austin and “unavailable” when legislators who are unhappy with their assignments want to find him and complain to them about it!)

One other prediction: Right now, the House and Senate leadership and the governor are singing kumbaya and pledging their cooperation with each other, but like all new crushes, this too will end—the only question is when. To paraphrase a golden rule of bicameral politics: “The other political party is not ‘the enemy,’ they are ‘the opposition’; the other chamber is the enemy.” This rule will kick in at some point this session, but until then, expect the natural tensions to remain bottled up for a few weeks.

New rules

During the first week of a session, each chamber of the legislature must adopt the rules under which its members will operate. (Must be nice to get to set your own rules, eh?) Among the rule changes that may impact your work at the capitol are the following:

• The Senate Criminal Justice Committee will be reduced from nine to seven members, meaning shorter waits to establish quorums, shorter hearings, and fewer votes to whip if you are trying to pass or kill a bill. All in all, that is going to make your work easier in the Senate (depending on who is on the committee, of course).
• The House committees on Criminal Jurisprudence, Corrections, and Juvenile Justice were all expanded from seven to nine members, so reverse everything we just said above and apply it here. (What can we say—the Lege giveth, and the Lege taketh away!)
• The House made it harder to kill bills that have been placed on the Local and Consent Calendar (a tactic used to great effect last session by the House Freedom Caucus).
• Both chambers updated their rules to govern complaints of sexual harassment and related training obligations—but how that will work in practice remains to be seen.

New money

“Always follow the money” is a well-heeded rule of thumb at the state capitol, and this week the state comptroller released his all-important biennial revenue estimate to give lawmakers an initial target for how much general revenue money they can spend in the next two fiscal years. The good news is that Comptroller Hegar predicted there would be an extra $9 billion in general revenue for legislators to play with (plus as much as $15 billion in the hard-to-tap Rainy Day Fund); the bad news is that they have billions of dollars of outstanding debts to cover, and the comptroller’s final estimate could be lowered later in the session (usually around April) if oil prices stay low and the national economic situation remains in flux.

Overall, however, this is cautiously optimistic news for observers interested in squeezing more juice from the legislature’s lemon—say, for things like a judicial pay raise or shoring up assistant prosecutor longevity pay or creating new courts, for example. But all of that will be contingent on how much of this “new money” gets earmarked for school finance and property tax relief, the two intertwined issues that will dominate this session. It could take anywhere from $5 billion to $12 billion (every biennium, mind you) to truly “solve” those problems, so all bets are off when it comes to guessing what the final accounting will be. But the bottom line is that all things are still possible, unlike in some other sessions when a weak estimate has immediately doomed new endeavors.

New bills to watch

For the first 60 days of a session, legislators’ focus is on budget hearings and bill filings. With that in mind, here is another entry in the category we began last week highlighting some of the recent filings of interest:

• HB 629 by Landgraf, creating a statewide protective order registry
• HB 658 by Dutton, changing the age of juvenile jurisdiction to 12–17 years of age
• HB 667 by K. King, enhancing the punishment for sexual assaults involving incest
• HB 707 by Flynn, enhancing the punishment for sexual assaults involving incest (yes, this is the exact same bill as the previous one; that happens in the House sometimes)
• HB 738 by Harless, requiring conditions of bond to be entered into TCIC
• SB 315 by Hughes, adding unlawful interception to engaging in organized criminal activity
• SB 325 by Huffman, creating a statewide protective order registry (companion to HB 629 above)

To read any bill, go to https://capitol.texas.gov/, enter the bill number in the appropriate field, and click “go”—then on the subsequent webpage, select the tab at the top of the page for the information (history, bill text, actions, authors, etc.) you want. And as always, you can contact Shannon or Rob if you are having trouble finding the information you seek.

New interim reports

Committees are still releasing their final reports from the interim. The House County Affairs Committee released its report yesterday, most of which will be of more interest to your county commissioners and the civil practitioners with whom they consult. We are also still waiting for the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee to release its recommendations.

New wish lists

Now that the legislature has convened, numerous lobby and advocacy groups are papering the hallways of the capitol with their policy papers and wish lists for the session. In the criminal justice sphere, that includes these entities that released their agendas this week:

Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF)/Right on Crime (PDF copy available here)

• Prohibit “public agency association” (such as TAC, TML, and—yes—TDCAA) from receiving any public funds
• Prohibit local governments from using public funds on employees (like assistant prosecutors) who come to Austin to work on legislation
• Grand jury reforms (same as last session)
• Reform/eliminate civil asset forfeiture (same as last session)
• Revise the state’s funding formula for probation departments to incentivize treatment and early terminations of successful probationers
• “Presumptive pre-trial diversion/drug courts” for drug possession cases
• Raise the age of juvenile jurisdiction to include 17-year-olds
• Expand eligibility for orders of non-disclosure
• Expand the list of offenses eligible for cite-and-release
• Pre-trial presumption of release on personal bond for low-risk offenders (based on validated risk assessment)
• Prohibit arrest for fine-only offenses
• Increase default mens rea standard from recklessly to intentionally/knowingly
• And many more; see the full report for all the details

Texas Criminal Justice Coalition (TCJC) (PDF copy available for download here)

• Remove parole and good time information from punishment jury charges
• Retroactively grant some young violent or sex offenders early parole eligibility (aka the “Second Look” bill)
• Reduce low-level felony drug offenses to misdemeanors
• Reduce low-level marijuana possession to a Class C offense or a civil sanction
• Reduce all Class B DWLI offenses back to Class Cs
• Remove felony enhancements for prostitution sellers (“Janes”)
• Increase funding for pre-trial diversion services for state jail felony offenders
• Replace current bail bond system with county-run pre-trial services and create a presumption of release on personal bond for low-risk offenders
• Require courts to consider “parenthood status” in sentencing
• Raise the age of juvenile jurisdiction to include 17-year-olds
• Remove minimum terms of confinement for juvenile determinate sentences
• Numerous other re-entry and rehabilitation proposals (see the report for details) 

Texas Council on Family Violence (TCFV)

• Enter “no contact” conditions of bond into TCIC (as with protective orders now)
• Keep firearms out of the hands of FV offenders who cannot legally possess them
• Expand existing Property Code laws allowing lease terminations due to family violence
• Increase training on strangulation recognition and victim services
• Various funding requests 

Texas Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force

• Apply rape shield law protections to victims of human trafficking
• Allow evidence of extraneous offenses in the guilt/innocence phase of trafficking trials
• Create a new Penal Code offense for online promotion of prostitution/trafficking
• Allow stacking of continuous human trafficking cases
• Broaden the definition of “coercion” for certain trafficking offenses
• Make it easier for human trafficking victims to get orders of non-disclosure for crimes committed while being trafficked
• Increase penalties for buyers of prostitution (“Johns”); mandatory probation for a first offense by sellers (“Janes”)

Next week

The governor and lieutenant governor’s inaugurations are on Tuesday, so very little substantive work will be accomplished next week—which is as it should be, because the focus at this stage is on filing bills, not debating them. If/when committee assignments are announced, we’ll break down those assignments for you and continue to highlight certain bills or lobby group agendas as they are rolled out.

Legislative rotation sign-up

Remember, you can contact Shannon for details on how to can get involved in the legislative process—even if it is only to get an up-close-and-personal view of the sausage-making for your first time. If you know when you’d like to come to Austin, give those dates to Shannon so he can put you on our first-come, first-served calendar (it is starting to fill up!). And if not, reach out and ask him for suggestions on when a visit may best suit your goals. Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease at the Capitol, so don’t be shy—your legislators need to hear from you!

Quotes of the Month

“The top three things—number one, number two, and number three—is [sic] school finance and property tax reform. Those are the top three issues for me.”

New House Speaker Dennis Bonnen (R-Angleton), when asked last month what his legislative priorities would be this session. He even went so far as to stock the House members’ lounge with drinking cups that said “School finance reform: The time is now.”

“Most certainly, the numbers mean this will be a school finance session.”

Dale Craymer, president of the Texas Taxpayers & Research Association, commenting upon the comptroller’s budget projections for the next biennium.

“If you don’t do it, you’re fighting with one hand tied behind your back. You have a moral imperative to do this—to do whatever it takes.”

Matt Osborne, a political activist who recently created a “false flag” Facebook page to discredit a rival party’s Senate candidate.

“I tried to get her to come to lunch today and she gave me some lame excuse about session.”

Attorney General Ken Paxton, joking about his wife, new State Senator Angela Paxton (R-Plano).

“There’s nothing ‘easy’ about Dennis.”

Former State Rep. Patricia Harless (R-Houston), giving a tongue-in-cheek reply when asked if she would say new House Speaker Dennis Bonnen was as “easy on the eyes” as she once remarked about his predecessor.

Yes, that’s right, this is Week Zero* because Austin is already being invaded by legislative Huns even though the session doesn’t convene until Tuesday of next week. [* – Kudos to the UIL football geniuses for inventing the term.] Therefore, today we will kick off our series of weekly updates so that you can keep up with the important happenings in Austin. Our goal is to help make you the most well-informed person in your courthouse on the legislative issues that will affect our court system, so feel free to share your new-found knowledge with those who share your goals and concerns.

Mandatory training reminder

Before we dive into legislative information, we want to remind everyone of two mandatory training requirements for new prosecutors.

The first mandatory training relates to a prosecutor’s duty to disclose exculpatory and mitigating evidence, as required by Gov’t Code §41.111. Every new prosecutor—whether elected, appointed, or hired—has 180 days from the date of his or her hire/appointment/election to complete the training. Thanks to funding from the Criminal Justice Section of the State Bar and the Court of Criminal Appeals, prosecutors can complete the required training for FREE through this online portal of our website: http://tdcaa.litmos.com/online-courses. (This course also satisfies the requirement for existing prosecutors to take subsequent classes every four years; contact TDCAA if you aren’t sure when you last took the class.)

The second training requirement is for elected prosecutors and relates to the Public Information Act, as required by Gov’t Code §552.012. Every newly-elected prosecutor (or your public information officer, if you have one) must complete this course within 90 days of taking the oath of office. The AG’s Office has also created an online course that satisfies this training requirement; to complete it, visit https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/open-government/governmental-bodies/pia-and-oma-training-resources/public-information-act-training.

Important legislative dates 

If your Texas civics lessons have gotten a little fuzzy after all these years, never fear! We are here to remind you how all of this works. (Or doesn’t work, as the case may be.)

Every odd-numbered year, the Texas legislature convenes on the second Tuesday in January and meets in regular session for 140 days. For the upcoming 86^th Regular Session, the following dates might deserve a place on your 2019 calendar:

Tuesday, January 8	86th Legislature convenes
Tuesday, January 15	Inauguration Day for the governor and lt. governor
Friday, March 8	60th Day; final day to file unrestricted bills
Monday, May 27	140th Day, aka Sine Die; session ends
Sunday, June 16	Deadline for governor to veto a bill
Sunday, September 1	General effective date for most new legislation

Other things that will take place the first four weeks of session include the election of the speaker of the House, the governor’s State of the State address, the chief justice’s State of the Judiciary address, the adoption of House and Senate rules, the naming of committee members, and the filing of a few thousand bills. (Don’t worry, we read them so you don’t have to!) The 60-day bill filing deadline forces the first month or two of session to focus on filing bills; the remaining 80 days are then dedicated to passing or killing them, and that is when prosecutors who are interested in supporting or opposing legislation that they did not file can have the greatest impact on the process.

Legislative rotation sign-up

This is probably a good point at which to remind you to contact Shannon for details on how you can get involved in the legislative process—even if it is only to get an up-close-and-personal view of the sausage-making for your first time. If you know when you’d like to come to Austin, give those dates to Shannon so he can get you on the calendar; if not, reach out and ask him for suggestions on when a visit may best suit your goals. Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease at the Capitol, so don’t be shy—your legislators need to hear from you!

Bill updates

It’s an oft-cited fact that half of all filed bills will never get a committee hearing, meaning many bills are DOF (Dead On Filing) even if no one knows it at the time. We can’t predict with certainty which bills will or won’t move, but we can make some educated guesses, so with that caveat in mind, here are ten pre-filed bills you might want to read up on while we wait for session to get started:

• HB 63 by Moody, creating civil penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana
• HB 182 by Canales, changing the burden of proof in civil asset forfeiture cases and limiting federal adoptions
• HB 184 by Canales, requiring prosecutors to provide cost/benefit information for all proposed plea bargain sentences
• HB 215 & HJR 22 by Reynolds, disqualifying local prosecutors from handling officer-involved shootings
• HB 404 by Thompson, S., repealing civil asset forfeiture
• HB 549 by Canales, authorizing either party in a criminal case to object to the appointment of a visiting judge
• SB 90 by Menendez, legalizing medical marijuana
• SB 191 by Miles, repealing the Driver Responsibility Program and replacing it with other fees
• SB 223 by Seliger, de-linking legislators’—but not DAs’—ERS retirement from the judicial benchmark salary

There are many more where these came from, but this is a sample of some of the 270 bills we are tracking to date. (And again, these are just some bills that you might want to have on your legislative radar at this early stage; what will eventually happen to them—if anything—remains to be seen.) To read up on any bill, go to https://capitol.texas.gov/, enter the bill number in the appropriate field, and click “go”—then on the subsequent webpage, select the tab at the top of the page for the information (history, bill text, actions, authors, etc.) you want. And as always, you can contact Shannon or Rob if you are having trouble finding the information you seek.

Session overview

For a preview of some of the many issues that are likely to be debated in Austin this spring, check out this report from the House Research Organization. It briefly discusses topics like bail/pre-trial release, civil asset forfeiture, grand juries, Raise the Age, state jail felonies, and drug crime penalties, and more. None of this should be news to anyone who has been reading our updates over the interim, but if you’d like to see some of the major issues in criminal justice (and other policy areas) laid out in summary form, this is a good resource.

Fun with names

If you’ve ever been frustrated by our laws’ inconsistent references to who is a “child,” a “juvenile,” or a “minor,” you are not alone. In fact, last session the Legislature asked the Office of Court Administration (OCA) to examine the extent of that problem. The result is a new report (PDF version available here) that identifies the inconsistencies but also points out the difficulties in standardizing one definition for each of those terms. As requested by the Legislature, the report also looks into various alternatives for handling youths’ non-traffic Class C offenses, including the possibility of turning all of those (tens of thousands of) criminal citations into “civil violations” as was done with truancy cases a few sessions ago. For all the details, read the report.

New felony judgment forms

As we told you last month, OCA has updated its felony judgment forms, instructions, affirmative orders, and special findings, all of which can be found at http://www.txcourts.gov/rules-forms/forms/. The revised forms became effective on January 1, 2019. If you have any questions or concerns, please call Margie Johnson, OCA Assistant General Counsel, at (512) 936-1183, or email her at [email protected].

Prosecutor Trial Skills Course registration

Registration is open for our January 2019 Prosecutor Trial Skills Course in Austin. From plea-bargaining to closing argument, this training will cover the tips and tools necessary to see that justice is done, both for new prosecutors and those just looking for a refresher. For more information on dates, the location, and the agenda, or to register, please click here.

Quotes of the Month

“There aren’t enough forensic scientists. There aren’t enough lab techs that are trained to do this.”

State Rep. Victoria Neave (D-Dallas), explaining why most of the state’s crowd-sourced funding for analyzing backlogged rape kits has not yet been spent.

“They said they need real-world examples, but I don’t want to be their real-world mistake.”

Erik Polka, a Chandler (AZ) business owner who has been cited by police for repeatedly harassing experimental self-driving vehicles operating in that town after one of them struck his son.

“I tried to get ahead of the perceived problems, and in this case, we’re certainly not taking away any tools in the toolbox and not taking away any of [law enforcement’s] authority. We’re just sanctioning small possessions in a different way. I think it’s a practical thing for me, the court system, the community and taxpayers.”

State Rep. Joe Moody (D-El Paso), describing his bill (HB 63) to “sanction” possession of small amounts of marijuana as civil, rather than criminal, cases.

“The way to open the door to legalization is through medical marijuana. Our state leaders are very aware of where we have stood for years on marijuana use and the legalization of marijuana—which we think is the end game on all of these processes that are taking place.”

Jackson County Sheriff Andy Louderback, legislative director for the Sheriffs Association of Texas, on upcoming efforts to legalize all forms of medical marijuana in Texas.

“I enjoyed driving my ‘98 Jeep Wrangler with a lift, Flowmaster, and six floodlights over to the White House when President Bush was president and I was able to park it on the driveway—not in the back, in the front. President Bush didn’t seem to mind. Although before I left, I did leave a little Texas oil on the driveway of the White House.”

Retiring Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX), a former Harris County prosecutor and judge, on his favorite memory from his stint in Congress. [For this source and related comments, read this compilation of comments from retiring members of Texas’ congressional delegation.]

“Judgements are made before you get to know someone, and reaching across the aisle is something you don’t see much of anymore.”

Retiring Congressman Sam Johnson (R-TX), in that same article.

“[T]here is really no better good-bye than the words of Davy Crockett when he left Congress, when he said, affectionately: ‘You may all go to hell, I am going to Texas.’”

Congressman Poe, in his farewell address to his fellow House members.