HBA-BSM H.C.R. 104 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.C.R. 104 By: Jones, Jesse Judicial Affairs 3/27/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE While jury service is a civic duty for many Americans, extended jury service can create significant financial hardship on jurors that not only tends to limit participation in jury service but ultimately reduces the representativeness of juries in an increasingly diverse society. Current law sets the daily reimbursement of entitled expenses to jurors in an amount that is not less than $6 a day but not more than $50 a day. Because jurors' compensation often falls at the lower end of this reimbursement schedule, jury duty participation may cause undue financial hardships on citizens who incur expenses responding to a jury summons. Additionally, since Texas law does not require employers to pay workers for time taken to serve on juries, the financial hardship falls most heavily on hourly wage earners. Because of the low reimbursement rate, many lower income individuals choose not to serve. Consequently, minorities and young adults are significantly underrepresented on many Texas juries which may potentially violate a constitutional requirement that juries represent a cross section of the community. House Concurrent Resolution 104 requests the Congress of the United States to give each person who serves on a jury under certain circumstances a $40 tax credit for each day of service. 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. ANALYSIS House Concurrent Resolution 104 requests the Congress of the United States to give each person who serves on a jury under certain circumstances or in certain localities a $40 tax credit per day of service and to give each person who is summoned and appears, but does not serve, a one-time $40 tax credit for that day.