BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 451

By: Moody

Juvenile Justice & Family Issues

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Current law authorizes specified categories of judges, justices, and magistrates to conduct a marriage ceremony, requiring periodic legislative updates to account for newly created types of judges. These updates may lag behind appointments of judicial officers. C.S.H.B. 451 seeks to address this issue by defining the judges who have that authority by reference to certain Tax Code definitions, which are more comprehensive and are updated regularly.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 451 amends the Family Code to replace provisions listing certain judges, justices, and magistrates authorized to conduct a marriage ceremony with a provision authorizing such a ceremony to be conducted by a current, former, or retired federal judge or state judge.  The bill defines those terms by reference to the Tax Code provisions relating to the confidentiality of home address information contained in appraisal records.

C.S.H.B. 451 repeals Section 2.202(b-1), Family Code.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2021.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 451 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

The substitute contains a specification that the federal and state judges authorized to conduct a marriage ceremony are current, former, or retired federal or state judges.