By Gallego                                            H.B. No. 2325
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to continuing legal education, technical assistance and
    1-3  other support programs for prosecuting attorneys and their
    1-4  personnel and for criminal defense attorneys who regularly
    1-5  represent indigent defendants.
    1-6        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-7        SECTION 1.  Section 56.001(a), Government Code, is amended to
    1-8  read as follows:
    1-9        (a)  The judicial and court personnel training fund is
   1-10  created in the state treasury and shall be administered by the
   1-11  supreme court and the court of criminal appeals.
   1-12        SECTION 2.  Section 56.001(i), Government Code, is amended to
   1-13  read as follows:
   1-14        (i)  On requisition of the supreme court or the court of
   1-15  criminal appeals, the comptroller shall draw a warrant on the fund
   1-16  for the amount specified in the requisition for a use authorized in
   1-17  Section 56.003.  A warrant may not exceed the amount appropriated
   1-18  for any one fiscal year.  At the end of each state fiscal year, any
   1-19  unexpended balance in the fund in excess of $500,000 shall be
   1-20  transferred to the general revenue fund.
   1-21        SECTION 3.  Section 56.003(a), Government Code, is amended to
   1-22  read as follows:
   1-23        (a)  The supreme court or the court of criminal appeals may
    2-1  not use more than three percent of the money appropriated in any
    2-2  one fiscal year to hire staff and provide for the proper
    2-3  administration of this chapter.
    2-4        SECTION 4.  Section 56.003, Government Code, is amended by
    2-5  adding subsection (f) to read as follows:
    2-6        (f)  The court of criminal appeals shall grant legal funds to
    2-7  statewide professional associations of prosecuting attorneys and of
    2-8  criminal defense attorneys who regularly represent indigent
    2-9  defendants in criminal matters, whose purposes include providing
   2-10  continuing legal education, technical assistance and other support
   2-11  programs.
   2-12        SECTION 5.  Section 56.004, Government Code, is amended to
   2-13  read as follows:
   2-14        (a)  The legislature shall appropriate funds from the
   2-15  judicial and court personnel training fund to the supreme court to
   2-16  provide for the continuing legal education of judges and court
   2-17  personnel in this state.
   2-18        (b)  The legislature shall appropriate funds from the
   2-19  judicial and court personnel training fund to the court of criminal
   2-20  appeals to provide for continuing legal education, technical
   2-21  assistance and other support programs for prosecuting attorneys and
   2-22  their personnel and for criminal defense attorneys who regularly
   2-23  represent indigent defendants in criminal matters.
   2-24        SECTION 6.  Section 56.005, Government Code, is amended by
   2-25  adding new subsections (f) and (g) to read as follows:
    3-1        (f)  An entity receiving a grant of funds from the court of
    3-2  criminal appeals under this chapter for continuing legal education,
    3-3  technical assistance and other support programs for prosecuting
    3-4  attorneys and their personnel shall designate a committee to
    3-5  recommend educational requirements and course content, technical
    3-6  assistance programs and support services and standards for the
    3-7  purposes of the grant awarded.
    3-8        (g)  An entity receiving a grant of funds from the court of
    3-9  criminal appeals under this chapter for continuing legal education,
   3-10  technical assistance and other support programs for criminal
   3-11  defense attorneys who regularly represent indigent defendants shall
   3-12  designate a committee to recommend educational requirements and
   3-13  course content, technical assistance programs and support services,
   3-14  and standards for the purposes of the grant awarded.
   3-15        SECTION 7.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   3-16        SECTION 8.  The importance of this legislation and the
   3-17  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   3-18  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   3-19  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   3-20  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.