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.