By Dukes                                              H.B. No. 1718
         76R4426 KEL-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the use of the compensation to victims of crime fund to
 1-3     pay the cost of providing certain victims' services and assistance.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Article 56.54(b), Code of Criminal Procedure, as
 1-6     amended by Chapters 1042 and 1434, Acts of the 75th Legislature,
 1-7     Regular Session, 1997, is reenacted and amended to read as follows:
 1-8           (b)  Except as provided by Subsections (h), [and] (i), (j),
 1-9     and (k) and Article 56.541, the compensation to victims of crime
1-10     fund may be used only by the attorney general for the payment of
1-11     compensation to claimants or victims under this subchapter, the
1-12     operation of the Crime Victims' Institute created by Chapter 412,
1-13     Government Code, and other expenses in administering this
1-14     subchapter.
1-15           SECTION 2.  Article 56.54, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-16     amended by adding Subsections (j) and (k) to read as follows:
1-17           (j)  The legislature may appropriate money in the
1-18     compensation to victims of crime fund to pay the salaries and
1-19     operating expenses of the victim assistance coordinators and the
1-20     crime victim liaisons described by Article 56.04.
1-21           (k)  The attorney general may use the compensation to victims
1-22     of crime fund to pay the cost of providing a transcript of the
1-23     trial to the victim on the victim's request.
1-24           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-1     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-2     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-3     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-4     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 2-5     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-6     passage, and it is so enacted.