BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 1120

By: Riddle

Homeland Security & Public Safety

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The Joint Committee on Human Trafficking meeting during the interim heard testimony on the need for legislation to require the Texas Crime Stoppers Council to include human trafficking as one of its areas of focus and included in its committee's interim report a recommendation to require the council to focus on anti-human trafficking efforts. H.B. 1120 seeks to further those efforts by enacting the committee's recommendation in the form of a requirement for the council to create a program to encourage citizens to report criminal activity relating to trafficking of persons and for the council to provide financial rewards for tips leading or substantially contributing to arrests or apprehensions of traffickers.

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.

ANALYSIS

H.B. 1120 amends the Government Code to require the Texas Crime Stoppers Council to create at least one specialized program that encourages individuals to report criminal activity relating to the trafficking of persons and that financially rewards each individual who makes such a report that leads or substantially contributes to the arrest or apprehension of a person suspected of engaging in conduct that constitutes an offense of trafficking of persons.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2013.