HBA-TYH H.B. 1140 76(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1140 By: Thompson Elections 3/1/1999 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Currently, clerks are required to send a certified copy of each felony judgment of conviction in a pen pack to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) and an abstract of final felony conviction to the voter registrar in the felon's county of residence. This duplicates reporting performed by the TDCJ, which is also required to send felony information to voter registrars of Texas. Additionally, some district clerks enter felony conviction data into their local jury pool and voter registration system, and report this information on the CR-43 form to the Department of Public Safety, which stores the information in a statewide data bank. Thus the filing of abstracts of judgment on a local level can be repetitive. H.B. 1140 deletes the requirement that the clerk send an abstract of felony judgment to the voter registrar. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 16.003, Election Code, as follows: Sec. 16.003. FELONY CONVICTION. (a) Requires the Department of Public Safety (department) to prepare a monthly abstract of information received under Chapter 60 (Criminal History Record System), Code of Criminal Procedure. Removes the requirement that the clerk of each court having felony jurisdiction (clerk) prepare a monthly abstract of each final judgment of a court, served by the clerk, convicting a person 18 years of age or older who is a resident of the state of a felony. Makes conforming changes. (b) Requires the department, rather than the clerk, to file the abstract with the voter registrar of the person's county of residence within a reasonable period and in accordance with guidelines adopted by the agency, rather than not later than the 10th day of the month following the month in which the abstract is prepared. SECTION 2.Effective date: September 1, 1999. SECTION 3.Emergency clause.