Bill Text: TX SB1367 | 2025-2026 | 89th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to the appointment, duties, and removal of the state prosecuting attorney.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2025-02-18 - Filed [SB1367 Detail]
Download: Texas-2025-SB1367-Introduced.html
| 89R13419 BCH-F | ||
| By: Hughes | S.B. No. 1367 | |
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| relating to the appointment, duties, and removal of the state | ||
| prosecuting attorney. | ||
| BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
| SECTION 1. The heading to Section 42.001, Government Code, | ||
| is amended to read as follows: | ||
| Sec. 42.001. OFFICE; DUTIES; QUALIFICATIONS. | ||
| SECTION 2. Section 42.001, Government Code, is amended by | ||
| amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (a-1) to read as | ||
| follows: | ||
| (a) The supreme court [ |
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| state prosecuting attorney. | ||
| (a-1) The state prosecuting attorney: | ||
| (1) shall [ |
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| before the court of criminal appeals; | ||
| (2) [ |
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| represent the state in any stage of a criminal case before a state | ||
| court of appeals if the attorney [ |
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| interest of the state; and | ||
| (3) may exercise concurrent jurisdiction to represent | ||
| the state in the district and inferior courts in this state in a | ||
| criminal case in which the criminal conduct alleged relates to a | ||
| violation of this state's election laws. | ||
| SECTION 3. Section 42.004, Government Code, is amended to | ||
| read as follows: | ||
| Sec. 42.004. REMOVAL. The supreme court [ |
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| good cause. | ||
| SECTION 4. The changes in law made by this Act apply only to | ||
| a state prosecuting attorney who is appointed on or after the | ||
| effective date of this Act. A state prosecuting attorney appointed | ||
| before the effective date of this Act continues to serve for the | ||
| term to which the state prosecuting attorney was appointed unless | ||
| otherwise removed as provided by law. | ||
| SECTION 5. (a) Notwithstanding any other section of this | ||
| Act, in a state fiscal year, the state prosecuting attorney is not | ||
| required to implement a mandatory provision in another section of | ||
| this Act imposing a duty on the state prosecuting attorney to take | ||
| an action unless money is specifically appropriated to the state | ||
| prosecuting attorney for that fiscal year to carry out that duty. | ||
| The state prosecuting attorney may implement the provision in that | ||
| fiscal year to the extent other funding is available to the state | ||
| prosecuting attorney for the implementation. | ||
| (b) If, as authorized by Subsection (a) of this section, the | ||
| state prosecuting attorney does not implement the mandatory | ||
| provision in a state fiscal year, the state prosecuting attorney, | ||
| in the state prosecuting attorney's legislative budget request for | ||
| the next state fiscal biennium, shall certify that fact to the | ||
| Legislative Budget Board and include a written estimate of the | ||
| costs of implementing the provision in each year of that next state | ||
| fiscal biennium. | ||
| (c) This section expires and any duty suspended by | ||
| Subsection (a) of this section becomes mandatory on September 1, | ||
| 2029. | ||
| SECTION 6. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025. | ||
