By:  Jones, Jesse                                      H.B. No. 688
       73R1735 GCH-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the expense reimbursement paid to a nonresident witness
    1-3  in a criminal case.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 2, Article 35.27, Code of Criminal
    1-6  Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 2.  AMOUNT OF COMPENSATION FOR EXPENSES.  Any person
    1-8  seeking compensation as a witness shall make an affidavit setting
    1-9  out the travel and daily living expenses necessitated by his travel
   1-10  to and from and attendance at the place he appeared to give
   1-11  testimony, together with the number of days that such travel and
   1-12  attendance made him absent from his place of residence.
   1-13  Compensation paid by the State to the witness for such expenses
   1-14  shall not exceed $50 per day for daily living expenses and the rate
   1-15  of reimbursement <16 cents> per mile authorized in the General
   1-16  Appropriations Act for travel by state employees in their
   1-17  personally owned or leased motor vehicles <personal automobile>.
   1-18        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
   1-19  applies only to reimbursement of a nonresident witness for expenses
   1-20  incurred on or after that date.  Reimbursement for an expense
   1-21  incurred by a nonresident witness before the effective date of this
   1-22  Act is governed by the law in effect at the time the expense was
   1-23  incurred, and the former law is continued in effect for this
   1-24  purpose.
    2-1        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-2  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-3  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-4  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-5  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.