Understanding How a Bill Becomes Law & Ways to Advocate
Our team is committed to educating the you on the processes that occur throughout the legislative session including how a bill is introduced, how a bill proceeds through the legislature, what testifying and/or supporting a bill entails, and more. Take a look at the information outlined below, including public safety related bills that have been filed for this session and what they could mean for public safety in Houston.
Legislative Briefing Event - January 18, 2023
Our team provided basic information to the community on processes that occur throughout the legislative session. Also, featuring guest speaker Alison Steele, the mother of 19-year-old Cayley Mandadi who was brutally sexually assaulted and murdered in 2017. Steele fought hard to change the AMBER Alert law so that adults like her daughter could be protected. Steele believes an AMBER Alert could have saved her daughter’s life. She will share her advocacy story as the driving force behind the CLEAR Alert legislation.
VIDEO:
How a Bill Becomes a Law
In Texas, a bill becomes a law by passing through a few main stages in the Texas legislature:
- Introduction of the bill
- Committee Action (where the bill is assigned to a relevant subcommittee to review in depth)
- Floor Action (when a bill is discussed by the entire House OR Senate after in-depth review from a
subcommittee) - Enrollment (when both the House and Senate has passed the bill in identical form and it moves to the
Governor for final signing/approval). - The bill becomes a law.
Filed Public Safety Bills
- H.B. 4338 – Sammy’s Law (Holt)
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- This bill would require large social media platforms to implement safety management software to help protect children online.
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- S.B. 9 (Huffman)
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- This bill focuses on bail reform. It aims to regulate how defendants are released on bail, increase oversight of charitable bail organizations, and require peace officers to provide notices to victims of family violence, stalking, harassment, or terroristic threats.
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- S.B. 40 (Huffman)
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- This bill would prevent local governments from using public funds to pay for bail bonds.
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- S.B. 552
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- This bill would change the rules about who is eligible for probation or deferred adjudication, potentially limiting certain offenders from receiving these alternatives to jail or prison.
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- S.B. 1047
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- This bill focuses on bail reform, regulating how defendants are released and ensuring victims of crimes like family violence, stalking, and harassment receive proper notification.
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- S.J.R. 5
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- This proposed constitutional amendment would allow courts to deny bail in limited circumstances to people accused of violent or sexual offenses or human trafficking.
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- S.J.R. 17
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- Similar to S.J.R. 5, this proposal would allow courts to deny bail in certain cases involving violent or sexual offenses and human trafficking.
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- S.J.R. 49
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- This bill would require courts to deny bail to undocumented immigrants charged with a felony.
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- H.B. 2582 (Hull)
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- This bill would ensure that victims, their guardians, or close relatives have the right to access information about a defendant’s parole process.
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- H.B. 4332 (Hull)
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- This bill would change the procedures for how inmates are considered for parole and require more transparency and reporting in the parole process.
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- H.B. 2000 (Ashby)
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- This bill would add “child grooming” to the list of offenses that require an individual to register as a sex offender.
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How to Look up a Bill
Look up your State Representatives
Testifying at the Texas Legislature
There are three ways to register your support or opposition for either a House or Senate bill once it is scheduled for a public hearing.
- You may submit written testimony either in person or online. For this, you will simply fill out some personal information (name, organization affiliation, county, etc.), then you will designate if you are for or against the bill, and finally you will be provided a text box to write out why you are for or against the bill.
- You may verbally testify in person. To be recognized as an in-person testimony, you must register to do so onsite. When you arrive at the Capital, you must proceed to either the Senate or House registration devices where you will fill out an electronic form with your name, if you are for or against the bill, and select that you would like to speak publicly. When your name is called during the hearing, you will proceed to the microphone where you will have 3 uninterrupted minutes to state your opinion. If a legislator has further questions for you, they may extend your time at the microphone and open the floor for other legislators to question you.
- Please find an example in video below of Crime Stoppers partner and surviving family member of Homicide, Teresa Seck testifying in favor of SB 6 in the 2021 Texas Legislative Session.
- You may register for or against a bill without electing to publicly testify. This is done on site, at the Capital on the day of the public hearing for the bill of interest.
WATCH VIDEO OF THERESA SECK’S 2021 TESTIMONY
Theresa Seck testified in support of companion bills HB 2 and SB 6. Her brother, Patrick Aikens, was walking outside his galleria area apartment when he was randomly targeted, assaulted, and shot to death allegedly by 28-year-old Deerian Carroway. Carroway was out on SEVEN felony bonds between two counties (Harris and Fort Bend) including several counts of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon and was wearing an ankle monitor at the time of Aikens death.