BILL ANALYSIS H.B. 2574 By: Uher/Saunders C.S.H.B. 2574 By: Hartnett 4-11-95 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND Currently, Wharton and Matagorda Counties are served by the 23rd District Attorney. The population and crime rates in both counties justify a full time district attorney for each county. PURPOSE HB 2574 moves the 23rd District Attorney's office to Matagorda County and creates a new 329th District Attorney's office for Wharton County. Each would be professional prosecutors. 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. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 43.110, Government Code. Subsecs. (a) and (b) are amended to remove Wharton County from the 23rd Judicial District Attorney district. New Subsec. (d) defines additional jurisdiction of the office of the 23rd District Attorney. SECTION 2 adds a new Section 43.1775 to the Government Code to create the 329th Judicial District Attorney elected by the voters of Wharton County and representing the state and perform the duties of prosecutor before the district courts in Wharton County. SECTION 3 adds Section 45.261 to the Government Code to revise the duties of the Matagorda County Attorney. SECTION 4. Amends Section 46.002, Government Code to add the 329th Judicial District Attorney to the Professional Prosecutors Act. SECTION 5. Effective date. SECTION 6 . Emergency clause. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE Section 1 of the substitute was changed to add felony and misdemeanor criminal matters to the list of additional duties in new Gov't Code § 43.110(d); the original bill listed only juvenile matters. Sections 2 through 6 are the same in both versions. SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE ACTION Pursuant to a public notice posted on March 30, 1995, the Committee on Judicial Affairs met in a public hearing on April 4, 1995, to consider H.B. 2574. The Chair laid out H.B. 2574 and moved to leave the bill pending. There being no objection, H.B. 2574 was left pending. Pursuant to a public notice posted on April 6, 1995, the Committee on Judicial Affairs met in a public hearing on April 11, 1995. H.B. 2574 was pending before the committee. Without objection, the Chair, Rep. Hartnett, laid out H.B. 2574 and explained the bill. The Chair then offered up and laid out a complete committee substitute and explained the substitute. There were no witnesses. Rep. Goodman moved that the substitute be adopted. There were no objections. Rep. Goodman moved that H.B. 2574, as substituted, be reported favorably back to the full House with the recommendation that it do pass, be printed and sent to the Local & Consent Calendars Committee. The motion prevailed by the following record vote: 7 ayes, 0 nays, 0 PNV and 2 absent.