By: Birdwell S.J.R. No. 68
(In the Senate - Filed March 7, 2025; March 10, 2025, read
first time and referred to Committee on State Affairs;
April 14, 2025, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 9,
Nays 0; April 14, 2025, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION
proposing a constitutional amendment to clarify and implement
certain provisions governing the impeachment, trial, removal from
office, and disqualification of public officers.
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 5, Article XV, Texas Constitution, is
amended to read as follows:
Sec. 5. (a) All officers against whom articles of
impeachment may be preferred shall be suspended from the exercise
of the duties of their offices [office], with ordinary pay, during
the pendency of such impeachment.
(b) The Governor may make a provisional appointment to fill
the vacancy[,] occasioned by the suspension of an officer, other
than the Governor, until the decision on the impeachment.
(c) Section 16, Article IV, of this Constitution applies to
a vacancy occasioned by the suspension of the Governor on
impeachment or by the removal of the Governor from office.
SECTION 2. Section 7, Article XV, Texas Constitution, is
amended to read as follows:
Sec. 7. (a) The Legislature shall provide by law for the
trial and removal from office of all officers of this State, the
modes for which have not been provided in this Constitution.
(b) The Legislature may enact general laws, consistent with
this Constitution, to implement this Article or another provision
of this Constitution providing for the impeachment, trial, removal
from office, or disqualification of an officer of this State.
SECTION 3. This proposed constitutional amendment shall be
submitted to the voters at an election to be held November 4, 2025.
The ballot shall be printed to permit voting for or against the
proposition: "The constitutional amendment clarifying and
implementing certain provisions governing the impeachment, trial,
removal from office, and disqualification of public officers."
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