By: Hernandez (Senate Sponsor - Alvarado) H.B. No. 402
(In the Senate - Received from the House April 13, 2021;
April 14, 2021, read first time and referred to Committee on
Criminal Justice; May 6, 2021, reported favorably by the following
vote: Yeas 6, Nays 0; May 6, 2021, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the use of certain funds derived from criminal asset
forfeiture to provide services to domestic victims of trafficking.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Article 59.06, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
amended by adding Subsection (u) to read as follows:
(u) As a specific exception to Subsection (c) that the funds
described by that subsection be used only for the official purposes
of the attorney representing the state or for law enforcement
purposes, to cover the costs of a contract with a municipal or
county program to provide services to domestic victims of
trafficking, the attorney representing the state or the head of a
law enforcement agency, as applicable, may use any portion of the
gross amount credited to the attorney's or agency's special fund
under Subsection (c) from the forfeiture of contraband that:
(1) is used in the commission of, or used to facilitate
or intended to be used to facilitate the commission of, an offense
under Chapter 20A, Penal Code; or
(2) consists of proceeds gained from the commission
of, or property acquired with proceeds gained from the commission
of, an offense under Chapter 20A, Penal Code.
SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act in amending
Article 59.06, Code of Criminal Procedure, applies to the
disposition or use, on or after the effective date of this Act, of
proceeds or property received by a law enforcement agency or
attorney representing the state under Chapter 59, Code of Criminal
Procedure, regardless of whether the receipt of the proceeds or
property occurred before, on, or after the effective date of this
Act.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2021.
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