BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2913

By: Zerwas

Land & Resource Management

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Child Advocates of Fort Bend is a fast-growing children's advocacy center that has expressed a need for more space to run its day-to-day operations. Certain real property, currently owned by the Department of Public Safety, is adjacent to Child Advocates of Fort Bend's office in Rosenberg. C.S.H.B. 2913 seeks to provide for the transfer of that property to the Child Advocates of Fort Bend.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

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

C.S.H.B. 2913 requires the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to transfer to Child Advocates of Fort Bend certain real property as described by the bill. The bill requires Child Advocates of Fort Bend to use the property only for a purpose that benefits the public interest of the state and provides for the automatic reversion of property ownership to DPS if the property is used for any other purpose. The bill requires DPS to transfer the property by an appropriate instrument of transfer and sets out certain requirements for the instrument of transfer. The bill requires DPS to retain custody of the instrument of transfer after it is filed in the real property records of Fort Bend County.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2019.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 2913 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

The substitute does not require the General Land Office to offer to sell certain real property to Child Advocates of Fort Bend on behalf of DPS, but the substitute provides instead for the transfer of certain real property from DPS to Child Advocates of Fort Bend. The substitute revises the description of the applicable real property.

The substitute requires Child Advocates of Fort Bend to use the transferred property only for a purpose that benefits the public interest of the state and provides for the automatic reversion of the property to DPS if the property is used for another purpose.

The substitute requires DPS to transfer the property by an appropriate instrument of transfer, sets out requirements for the instrument of transfer, and requires DPS to retain custody of the instrument of transfer after it is filed in the real property records of Fort Bend County.