Committee advances a package of public-safety and criminal-justice bills; roll calls unanimous or near-unanimous

The Senate Committee on Criminal Justice advanced a group of criminal-justice and public-safety bills after presentations and public testimony on May 20, 2025. Committee members voted to report multiple bills favorably to the full Senate, most by unanimous or near-unanimous roll calls.

Why it matters: The measures touch public-safety priorities raised this session — from increasing penalties for organ trafficking and for assaults against first responders to updating procedures for emergency electronic-data disclosures and expanding tools to prosecute human smuggling. Many bills carried testimony from law enforcement, county clerks, prosecutors, victims and civil-rights groups.

What the committee did: The committee reported the following bills to the full Senate with favorable recommendations (motion language and committee vote tallies are taken from committee roll calls recorded in the transcript):

- SB 127 (failure to report child abuse; statute of limitations change): Committee motion to report favorably passed 5 ayes, 0 nays. Motion text: “that Senate Bill 127 be reported to the full Senate with a recommendation that it do pass favorably and be printed.”

- SB 456 (purchase/sale of human organs; penalty increases, physician license revocation): Motion passed 5 ayes, 0 nays. Motion text: “that Senate Bill 456 be reported to the full Senate with the recommendation that it do pass favorably and be printed.”

- SB 482 (increased penalties for assaulting utility workers during declared disasters): Motion passed 5 ayes, 0 nays. Motion text: “that Senate Bill 482 be reported to the full Senate with the recommendation that it do pass favorably and be printed.”

- SB 659 (human smuggling; committee substitute broadened definitions): Committee adopted the substitute and reported the substitute favorably, motion passed 5 ayes, 0 nays. Motion text: “that the committee substitute for Senate Bill 659 be adopted in lieu thereof and be reported to the full Senate with the recommendation that it do pass favorably and be printed.”

- SB 739 (adds TDI investigator to authorized officers for tracking equipment in fraud investigations): Motion passed 5 ayes, 0 nays.

- SB 816 (emergency disclosures of electronic customer data; committee substitute clarifying provider protections in emergencies): Committee substitute adopted and reported favorably, motion passed 5 ayes, 0 nays.

- SB 1666 (restitution payment transfers from Texas Department of Criminal Justice — committee substitute adopted): Committee substitute adopted and reported favorably, motion passed 5 ayes, 0 nays.

- SB 1886 (search-warrant execution for blood specimens across adjacent counties): Motion passed 5 ayes, 0 nays.

- SB 1980 (assault/interference penalties for peace officers, parole officers and emergency personnel — as laid out in committee): Motion passed 5 ayes, 0 nays.

- SB 2580 / SB 2611 and related property-fraud measures (real-property theft, civil remedies, statute of limitations changes): Several measures and committee recommendations were reported; votes recorded in the transcript show multiple bills related to property-fraud reforms were reported with favorable recommendations (some recorded as 6 ayes, 0 nays where indicated).

- SB 2693 (TJJD access by advocacy groups; standards for admission): Motion passed 6 ayes, 0 nays.

- SB 2776 (Credible Messengers expansion for TJJD disclosures with consent): Motion passed 6 ayes, 0 nays.

- SB 1234 (adding fentanyl/penalty-group 1B to child/elder endangerment statute): Motion passed 6 ayes, 0 nays.

How to read the vote tallies: The committee transcript contains roll-call tallies recorded by the clerk after each motion. Where the transcript recorded the roll call, the committee’s clerk read back the members’ votes (for example: “Chair Flores — Aye; Vice Chair Parker — Aye; Senator Hinojosa — Aye; Senator Huffman — Aye; Senator King — Aye; Senator Hagenboo — Aye”), and the clerk summarized the total (e.g., “5 ayes, no nays” or “6 ayes, no nays”). Those tallies are recorded above as reported in the meeting transcript.

Next steps: Bills reported favorably will be placed on the Senate calendar for consideration by the full Senate. Several items discussed at length in committee (notably the package addressing real-property deed fraud and SB 2611) were left pending for further work at the committee level or for a later committee vote.

Sources and transcript evidence: Committee roll-call announcements and recorded testimony for each bill are cited in the committee transcript. Selected transcript blocks that introduce and close discussion for many of the bills appear before and after individual bill presentations in the meeting record.