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Judiciary conference committee agrees to re-adopt last year’s criminal‑code bundle with technical date updates
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Summary
Members of the Judiciary conference committee agreed in principle to re-adopt last session’s bundled criminal bills (HB 2347 plus three Senate bills) with technical edits—chiefly moving several 2026 implementation dates to 2027—and asked staff to prepare a final report for signatures and a forthcoming vote.
Madam Chair opened a Judiciary conference committee meeting on March 25, 2025, and proposed adopting the same bundled criminal‑code package that was considered last session, with only technical updates to dates and a few provisions.
Jason Thompson, an adviser in staff offices, summarized the package for the committee. He said the base measure is HB 2347, which makes changes to theft law including provisions related to motor‑vehicle theft with a $500 threshold. The agreement would also fold in three Senate measures: SB 156, which creates the crime of unlawful use of a laser pointer and prescribes penalties; SB 84, which modifies criminal use of financial cards to encompass certain conduct involving gift cards; and SB 71, which includes criminal penalties related to purchasing sexual services, removes some city ordinances on that subject, and establishes requirements for attorney‑general‑approved educational or treatment programs connected to those offenses.
"The agreement was to add 3 other senate bills," Thompson said, and he told the committee the changes needed to the draft are mostly limited to date adjustments to reflect the carryover. Thompson noted some implementation dates in the draft currently list 2026 and 2025 and would be advanced one year (for example, 2026→2027) because the bills are being carried into the new session.
A committee member asked for a succinct list of the specific date edits; Thompson said he had not prepared a handout but could identify the edits and walk members through them. The member summarized the house’s position as adopting the conference committee report dated March 25, 2025, "with the exception of changing dates in the report, adding a year to the date." Committee members indicated assent during a brief confer.
The committee did not record a formal vote during the meeting. Members agreed staff would prepare a final conference committee report reflecting the agreed technical edits and bring it back for signatures and a formal vote. Thompson said staff would not overpromise but expected to have the report ready and circulated for signatures as soon as the following day.
No final enactment or committee vote was taken at this meeting; the next procedural step is circulation of the revised report for signatures and a scheduled vote. The transcript records that the Senate had previously passed the base measure unanimously (40‑0) in the prior session, a fact Thompson noted while summarizing the package.
Details left to be finalized include an itemized list of every date change (Thompson said he could provide that list) and the timing of the formal committee vote once the report is produced and circulated for signatures.
