The 2017 session ends after Midnight. There have been a few bills discussed within their own threads or mentioned in others. This is some more interesting (I think) bills that have been cussed, discussed, mentioned or maybe just interesting if not previously brought up. First is the ones that have passed and been signed into law or are awaiting the governor's signature or veto. Many of these will go into law without the governor's signature if they were passed before (I think) the 20th day before the session ends tomorrow.
SB4 deals with illegal aliens. Although it is has not been against the law for any officers to ask if a person was in the country legally and to report any findings to ICE, some departments or city/county governments have made doing so against policy creating the claim of a “sanctuary city” or county. This law makes such a practice by officers as not only legal (as it has always been) but makes a person attempting to enact such a policy, rule or ordinance to restrict officers, a criminal act and removes the person from office. It gives no authority to enforce federal immigration laws or to take a person into custody for violating any immigration laws. It merely clarifies the authority to ask a question and report any answer to the proper federal authority, ICE. If ICE sends a detainer to the city or county jail (basically a warrant) and the jail administrator (usually sheriff or police chief) ignores the detainer/warranty, it is also a crime and removes the person from office.
HB25 eliminates straight party voting. After September 1, 2020 there will be no more ballot feature for straight ticket, one punch ballots. A person can still manually go in and select any person for any reason such as seeing a D or an R next to the name. Now if they could just eliminate that so that a voter might actually have to be educated on at least the names of the person that he/she is voting for. (passed by not yet signed by governor)
HB62 prohibits texting while driving unless the driver is stopped, such as at a stop sign, red light, etc. Previously it was on school zones only. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB357 allows for free prekindergarten for the children of police officers, firefighters and EMS. Previously the law allowed for no fees for the children that were homeless, could not speak English or were the children of active duty military personnel or those that are not active but were injured or killed in the line of duty. Basically it adds first responders to equal that of the military for free preschooling. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB441 since Memorial Day is tommorow..... this law prohibits schools from having any kind of class or instruction on Memorial Day. From reading the law, apparently some school district(s) has used this as a makeup day due to weather or other emergency where a school day had to be made up in order to satisfy the number of days a student must attend school. This laws says that if Memorial Day is needed, the education commissioner can simply waive the day as not needed. I am assuming that being at the end of the school year, it might be necessary to try and schedule a make up day then since this is usually the only day off at the end of the school year. The legislature has deemed Memorial Day too import to be taken up with school even if required due to an emergency. I will concur. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB1483, since I know his story is compelling to many or most people on TBH. Hwy 191 in Ector County will be designated as Chris Kyle Memorial Hwy.
HB1810 adds to child ****ography laws. I remember a case recently in Texas and I thought they were stretching the law where a school staff member was seen at games photographing cheerleaders. No big deal... until they found that he was using his zoom lens to only photograph crotch shots. That in my opinion did not fit the law on child ****ography since it was not nude photos. They apparently remedied that situation this session by making crotch shots a felony. That is even to possess one so it would not benefit a person from taking an overall photograph and then cropping it. The cropped photo would be the crime. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB1935 which has been discussed on its own thread. Removes knives in most situations from UCW laws. No more 5.5” restriction, daggers (often misquoted in threads as a double edged only illegal knife), etc. The law is not unrestricted however it only applies to adults 18 or older and still bans 5.5” knives at locations such as hospitals, bars (51% alcohol sales), school sporting events, amusement parks, etc. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB2009 eliminates the need for hunter education course requirements for anyone who has been in the Texas Air or National Guard, Texas State Guard or police officers if they were city officers, county sheriff or constable deputies or DPS. Other police officers are not exempt. The law previously exempted active members of the US military or those honorably discharged. This new part of the law adds some law enforcement and National and State Guards to that exemption. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB2812 restricts private security vehicles from looking like police vehicles. It restricts their lighting to white, amber or green whether activated or not. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB2908 adds police officers and judges to the hate crimes laws if the act of arson or property damage is done because of that status. It also makes it a 2nd Degree Felony (up to 20 years in prison) to physically restrain an officer or judge who is trying to enforce the law or a State Jail Felony (up to 2 years) for merely threatening an officer or judge with serious injury or death (Terroristic Threat). (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB3535 … for those of you who like the idea of hunting hogs from helicopters but can't seem to swing a couple of thousand dollars, there might be relief. It will now be legal to hunt from hot air balloons for feral hogs. I don't know what the cost might be but I would venture to guess that it will be cheaper than a helicopter. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB3784 allows an online portion of the LTC and the testing. The range part is still required. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
SB5 again attempts to get a valid (in some federal judge's opinions) voter ID law passed. Now the state will have a voter ID “mobile location” for a state ID if you don't already possess a driver's license, ID card or any other valid ID and there will be no fee for that mobile registration coming to a group. There are people and federal judges that said a voter ID was discriminatory because some poor and mostly minorities can't get to a state facility to get an ID but now they will come to you and issue you a free ID. If that isn't good enough, you can vote without a photo ID if you have an issue getting one such as no birth certificate and other issues. You can vote with your signature without proof of your issue but it is a 3rd Degree Felony if you lie about it. Basically it makes it a perjury type offense to lie about having an exempted reason for no ID. While a person can vote without an photo ID and the state will come to you for no fee if you want an ID.... I am sure some federal judge will still find a reason to say that it discriminates. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
SB16 reduces the licensing and renewal fee for an LTC to $40.
SB1138 adds Blue Alert to already existing systems of the Amber Alert (abducted children) and Silver Alert (missing elderly). A Blue Alert will be for a suspect in a serious injury or death to a police officer when such information is immediately available such as a vehicle used to escape from the scene. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
SB1232 adds Bestiality to the sex crimes laws. That's right folks, sex with animals was not a crime in Texas unless done publicly but not any more. I could add a couple of cities, counties, maybe colleges, etc., into a few jokes about this.... but will leave it alone... for now. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB873 is for police (peace) officers and federal law enforcement officers only. The current law has said for decades (but clarified about 20 years ago) that the police can carry handguns whether on or off duty. Most weapons laws such as 30.06 and 30.07, locations weapons are prohibited or UCW laws do not apply to the police as the law exempts them whether on or off duty. However..... officers could personally be banned for any reason by a business owner just as any person can be banned under the threat of trespassing charges. For an example, an owner might see a weapon (openly carried or accidentally exposed) and confront the officer. Even though not breaking a weapons law and no possibility of criminal charges filed, a representative of a business could ban officers from entering if armed. Such situations have been in the news in the last couple of years such as at restaurants where the manager might tell an even an on duty uniformed officer that the business has a no firearms policy and even though the officer might not be breaking any law, tell them to leave. That would then be considered trespassing if the officer refused unless he was responding to a call for service. This new law prohibits such actions by a representative of a business that deals with the public. A business cannot remove an officer from the business including sports arenas on or off duty due to a firearm. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB297 is not significant by any means but designates January 9th each year as Law Enforcement Appreciation Day.
HB3042 as Fallen Law Enforcement Day or roughly the equivalent of the US Memorial Day for the military but for officers killed in the line of duty on July 7th each year.
Laws that didn't pass (and this being the last day, I assume that their time is done) that might be of interest or having been discussed in these forums are........
HB1911 which is the so called constitutional carry law (which it would not have been). This one made it out of the House committee but no further. In fact it never got close to passing although it got much fanfare. Apparently the belief in the legislature for gun rights does not have broad bases support for no licensing, which requires a background check. The state has reduced the licensing fee to $40, reduced the class time required, opened the handgun license to open carry and reduced the violation of the 30.06 and 30.07 trespassing laws to basically a traffic citation. It looks like for now, this is as far as they are willing to go.
HB64 (and SB597). I throw this in because it is introduced every session and never even gets a hearing in committee. It is to abolish the death penalty in Texas. Look for it again in 2019....
HB158 would have made accusations in front of the grand jury against a police officer public. Under Texas law grand jury proceedings are secret. If a person is accused or merely investigated by the grand jury and no billed (cleared), the information is to be kept confidential. This bill would have made any accusation against an officer public even if no billed or even no evidence. It covers “all” of the grand jury proceeding in that case and not just the direct accusations against an officer. It never even got a hearing in committee.
HB324 attempts to do the exact same thing to all government employees. You could be a nurse in a jail and a prisoner could accuse you of anything and even if cleared, anything said or done in front of the grand jury by anyone would be made public if there was a no bill. Again, it never got a hearing.
SB91 relates to the police license plate readers. It made it through the Senate but did not get taken up in the House. It restricted the readers to law enforcement only and the images could not be sold to private agencies. It also required deleting the images after a year. I don't see much of a problem with this bill as a privacy issue but the House never followed up on it. Also, the police are not the only ones with such systems and some vehicle repo companies use the same technology. If the government/police use it then it needs to remain private and I think this bill would have done so.
SB111 would be great, in my opinion, if it had passed but the state and cities needs to “tax” money. This bill would have made all traffic camera systems illegal. There would be no radar enforcement or red light cameras legal in the state except for toll road cameras. This one never had a chance unfortunately.
SB274 would have made breaking into your vehicle a State Jail Felony and a second conviction a 3rd Degree Felony or up to 10 years in prison. When I started in law enforcement in the mid-80's it was automatically a 3rd Degree Felony to break into a vehicle. They reduced that to an A Misdemeanor to break into a vehicle. I would bet there are quite a few people that agree with me that breaking into a person's vehicle should again be a felony. Unfortunately this bill never got out of committee.
SB1588 is the bill that would have ended vehicle inspections. It almost made it... but not quite. It never got the final vote in the House even though it passed the House committee last week. It ran out of time.
SB1620, last but certainly not least is the discussed on TBH, chicken keeping bill. This bill would have made it legal for a person to keep up to 6 hens at their home even if they lived in a city. Like the vehicle inspections bill, it made it all the way to the last vote but ran out of time. Maybe in two years the city dwellers can keep egg layers at their home.
And there you have some of the 6,000 or so bills filed. I saw a few interesting bills but probably of limited interest to most people.
SB4 deals with illegal aliens. Although it is has not been against the law for any officers to ask if a person was in the country legally and to report any findings to ICE, some departments or city/county governments have made doing so against policy creating the claim of a “sanctuary city” or county. This law makes such a practice by officers as not only legal (as it has always been) but makes a person attempting to enact such a policy, rule or ordinance to restrict officers, a criminal act and removes the person from office. It gives no authority to enforce federal immigration laws or to take a person into custody for violating any immigration laws. It merely clarifies the authority to ask a question and report any answer to the proper federal authority, ICE. If ICE sends a detainer to the city or county jail (basically a warrant) and the jail administrator (usually sheriff or police chief) ignores the detainer/warranty, it is also a crime and removes the person from office.
HB25 eliminates straight party voting. After September 1, 2020 there will be no more ballot feature for straight ticket, one punch ballots. A person can still manually go in and select any person for any reason such as seeing a D or an R next to the name. Now if they could just eliminate that so that a voter might actually have to be educated on at least the names of the person that he/she is voting for. (passed by not yet signed by governor)
HB62 prohibits texting while driving unless the driver is stopped, such as at a stop sign, red light, etc. Previously it was on school zones only. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB357 allows for free prekindergarten for the children of police officers, firefighters and EMS. Previously the law allowed for no fees for the children that were homeless, could not speak English or were the children of active duty military personnel or those that are not active but were injured or killed in the line of duty. Basically it adds first responders to equal that of the military for free preschooling. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB441 since Memorial Day is tommorow..... this law prohibits schools from having any kind of class or instruction on Memorial Day. From reading the law, apparently some school district(s) has used this as a makeup day due to weather or other emergency where a school day had to be made up in order to satisfy the number of days a student must attend school. This laws says that if Memorial Day is needed, the education commissioner can simply waive the day as not needed. I am assuming that being at the end of the school year, it might be necessary to try and schedule a make up day then since this is usually the only day off at the end of the school year. The legislature has deemed Memorial Day too import to be taken up with school even if required due to an emergency. I will concur. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB1483, since I know his story is compelling to many or most people on TBH. Hwy 191 in Ector County will be designated as Chris Kyle Memorial Hwy.
HB1810 adds to child ****ography laws. I remember a case recently in Texas and I thought they were stretching the law where a school staff member was seen at games photographing cheerleaders. No big deal... until they found that he was using his zoom lens to only photograph crotch shots. That in my opinion did not fit the law on child ****ography since it was not nude photos. They apparently remedied that situation this session by making crotch shots a felony. That is even to possess one so it would not benefit a person from taking an overall photograph and then cropping it. The cropped photo would be the crime. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB1935 which has been discussed on its own thread. Removes knives in most situations from UCW laws. No more 5.5” restriction, daggers (often misquoted in threads as a double edged only illegal knife), etc. The law is not unrestricted however it only applies to adults 18 or older and still bans 5.5” knives at locations such as hospitals, bars (51% alcohol sales), school sporting events, amusement parks, etc. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB2009 eliminates the need for hunter education course requirements for anyone who has been in the Texas Air or National Guard, Texas State Guard or police officers if they were city officers, county sheriff or constable deputies or DPS. Other police officers are not exempt. The law previously exempted active members of the US military or those honorably discharged. This new part of the law adds some law enforcement and National and State Guards to that exemption. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB2812 restricts private security vehicles from looking like police vehicles. It restricts their lighting to white, amber or green whether activated or not. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB2908 adds police officers and judges to the hate crimes laws if the act of arson or property damage is done because of that status. It also makes it a 2nd Degree Felony (up to 20 years in prison) to physically restrain an officer or judge who is trying to enforce the law or a State Jail Felony (up to 2 years) for merely threatening an officer or judge with serious injury or death (Terroristic Threat). (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB3535 … for those of you who like the idea of hunting hogs from helicopters but can't seem to swing a couple of thousand dollars, there might be relief. It will now be legal to hunt from hot air balloons for feral hogs. I don't know what the cost might be but I would venture to guess that it will be cheaper than a helicopter. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB3784 allows an online portion of the LTC and the testing. The range part is still required. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
SB5 again attempts to get a valid (in some federal judge's opinions) voter ID law passed. Now the state will have a voter ID “mobile location” for a state ID if you don't already possess a driver's license, ID card or any other valid ID and there will be no fee for that mobile registration coming to a group. There are people and federal judges that said a voter ID was discriminatory because some poor and mostly minorities can't get to a state facility to get an ID but now they will come to you and issue you a free ID. If that isn't good enough, you can vote without a photo ID if you have an issue getting one such as no birth certificate and other issues. You can vote with your signature without proof of your issue but it is a 3rd Degree Felony if you lie about it. Basically it makes it a perjury type offense to lie about having an exempted reason for no ID. While a person can vote without an photo ID and the state will come to you for no fee if you want an ID.... I am sure some federal judge will still find a reason to say that it discriminates. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
SB16 reduces the licensing and renewal fee for an LTC to $40.
SB1138 adds Blue Alert to already existing systems of the Amber Alert (abducted children) and Silver Alert (missing elderly). A Blue Alert will be for a suspect in a serious injury or death to a police officer when such information is immediately available such as a vehicle used to escape from the scene. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
SB1232 adds Bestiality to the sex crimes laws. That's right folks, sex with animals was not a crime in Texas unless done publicly but not any more. I could add a couple of cities, counties, maybe colleges, etc., into a few jokes about this.... but will leave it alone... for now. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB873 is for police (peace) officers and federal law enforcement officers only. The current law has said for decades (but clarified about 20 years ago) that the police can carry handguns whether on or off duty. Most weapons laws such as 30.06 and 30.07, locations weapons are prohibited or UCW laws do not apply to the police as the law exempts them whether on or off duty. However..... officers could personally be banned for any reason by a business owner just as any person can be banned under the threat of trespassing charges. For an example, an owner might see a weapon (openly carried or accidentally exposed) and confront the officer. Even though not breaking a weapons law and no possibility of criminal charges filed, a representative of a business could ban officers from entering if armed. Such situations have been in the news in the last couple of years such as at restaurants where the manager might tell an even an on duty uniformed officer that the business has a no firearms policy and even though the officer might not be breaking any law, tell them to leave. That would then be considered trespassing if the officer refused unless he was responding to a call for service. This new law prohibits such actions by a representative of a business that deals with the public. A business cannot remove an officer from the business including sports arenas on or off duty due to a firearm. (passed by not yet signed by the governor)
HB297 is not significant by any means but designates January 9th each year as Law Enforcement Appreciation Day.
HB3042 as Fallen Law Enforcement Day or roughly the equivalent of the US Memorial Day for the military but for officers killed in the line of duty on July 7th each year.
Laws that didn't pass (and this being the last day, I assume that their time is done) that might be of interest or having been discussed in these forums are........
HB1911 which is the so called constitutional carry law (which it would not have been). This one made it out of the House committee but no further. In fact it never got close to passing although it got much fanfare. Apparently the belief in the legislature for gun rights does not have broad bases support for no licensing, which requires a background check. The state has reduced the licensing fee to $40, reduced the class time required, opened the handgun license to open carry and reduced the violation of the 30.06 and 30.07 trespassing laws to basically a traffic citation. It looks like for now, this is as far as they are willing to go.
HB64 (and SB597). I throw this in because it is introduced every session and never even gets a hearing in committee. It is to abolish the death penalty in Texas. Look for it again in 2019....
HB158 would have made accusations in front of the grand jury against a police officer public. Under Texas law grand jury proceedings are secret. If a person is accused or merely investigated by the grand jury and no billed (cleared), the information is to be kept confidential. This bill would have made any accusation against an officer public even if no billed or even no evidence. It covers “all” of the grand jury proceeding in that case and not just the direct accusations against an officer. It never even got a hearing in committee.
HB324 attempts to do the exact same thing to all government employees. You could be a nurse in a jail and a prisoner could accuse you of anything and even if cleared, anything said or done in front of the grand jury by anyone would be made public if there was a no bill. Again, it never got a hearing.
SB91 relates to the police license plate readers. It made it through the Senate but did not get taken up in the House. It restricted the readers to law enforcement only and the images could not be sold to private agencies. It also required deleting the images after a year. I don't see much of a problem with this bill as a privacy issue but the House never followed up on it. Also, the police are not the only ones with such systems and some vehicle repo companies use the same technology. If the government/police use it then it needs to remain private and I think this bill would have done so.
SB111 would be great, in my opinion, if it had passed but the state and cities needs to “tax” money. This bill would have made all traffic camera systems illegal. There would be no radar enforcement or red light cameras legal in the state except for toll road cameras. This one never had a chance unfortunately.
SB274 would have made breaking into your vehicle a State Jail Felony and a second conviction a 3rd Degree Felony or up to 10 years in prison. When I started in law enforcement in the mid-80's it was automatically a 3rd Degree Felony to break into a vehicle. They reduced that to an A Misdemeanor to break into a vehicle. I would bet there are quite a few people that agree with me that breaking into a person's vehicle should again be a felony. Unfortunately this bill never got out of committee.
SB1588 is the bill that would have ended vehicle inspections. It almost made it... but not quite. It never got the final vote in the House even though it passed the House committee last week. It ran out of time.
SB1620, last but certainly not least is the discussed on TBH, chicken keeping bill. This bill would have made it legal for a person to keep up to 6 hens at their home even if they lived in a city. Like the vehicle inspections bill, it made it all the way to the last vote but ran out of time. Maybe in two years the city dwellers can keep egg layers at their home.
And there you have some of the 6,000 or so bills filed. I saw a few interesting bills but probably of limited interest to most people.
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