Senate passes bill to expand bail reporting, clarify magistrate duties and restrict some personal bonds

The Texas Senate on Feb. 19 passed the committee substitute to Senate Bill 9, 28–2, after floor debate and adoption of two floor amendments. The bill, as amended, makes multiple changes to pretrial procedures, reporting systems and who may set initial bonds in certain serious cases.

Senator Huffman, the bill’s author, said the measure builds on SB 6 (2021) and aims to give judges and prosecutors better information to protect public safety. "We found out when we started digging into this that our different systems were not talking to each other," Huffman said, describing efforts to add data to the state Public Safety Report System and to allow the Office of Court Administration (OCA) to modernize reporting.

Key provisions included in the committee substitute as discussed on the floor: - Require written, on-the-record findings when a hearing officer determines no probable cause exists, to make the decision trackable. - Add new fields and data-sharing to the Public Safety Report System and direct sheriffs to help transmit release conditions to the Department of Public Safety (DPS). - Require that the presiding elected judge (rather than a hearing officer) set the initial bond for defendants on parole, defendants with two or more prior felony convictions, certain violent charge categories (for example murder and aggravated assault), and defendants held with a concurrent immigration hold. - Add offenses to the statutory list that bars release on personal bond, including unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon and certain family-violence and fentanyl-related offenses. - Increase reporting transparency for charitable bail organizations and impose timing/notification requirements when a defendant charged in one county allegedly commits a new offense in another county.

Senators questioned implementation and cost. Senator West asked whether counties would incur expenses to connect local jail and court systems; Huffman said he is working with OCA and seeks state funding to minimize local costs. Senator Menendez asked about adding "terroristic threat" to the list of offenses that may preclude a personal bond; Huffman said the judge retains discretion and the addition reflected requests from prosecutors and victims’ groups.

The Senate adopted floor amendments to direct sheriffs to transmit certain data and to clarify that a judge may reassess bond after indictment even if a defendant was previously released when an indictment arrived after a statutory deadline. The committee substitute passed to engrossment and the Senate suspended the three-day constitutional rule before final passage. The final tally on third reading was 28 ayes and 2 nays.