2025 Texas sessionsRegular and both called sessions have ended. This index covers House and Senate bills, not resolutions. Statuses come from official reports.

2025 · Regular session · House bill

HB2492

HB2492 makes the initial post-bond detention period in Article 17.291(b) a mandatory four hours, replacing discretion to hold a person for up to four hours.

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Official caption: Relating to the period for which a person arrested for certain crimes involving family violence may be held after bond is posted.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists House author(s): Bowers, Morales, Christina, Simmons, Plesa. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.

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Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.

Bill highlights

Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.

HB2492 makes the initial post-bond detention period in Article 17.291(b) a mandatory four hours, replacing discretion to hold a person for up to four hours.
The four-hour clock runs after bond is posted, not from the arrest.
Longer holds are not newly automatic: The existing law permits an additional period of no more than 48 hours only with a magistrate’s written authorization directed to the custodian and a conclusion that violence would continue on release.
The change applies to people arrested on or after September 1, 2025.

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What does it do?

HB2492 makes the initial post-bond detention period in Article 17.291(b) a mandatory four hours, replacing discretion to hold a person for up to four hours. The rule applies in the statute’s specified situation: a person “arrested or held without a warrant in the prevention of family violence,” where probable cause exists to believe the violence will continue if the person is immediately released. It is not an automatic extra four hours for every person charged with any domestic dispute. Final law, Section 1; full detention provision.

The four-hour clock runs after bond is posted, not from the arrest. This provision is an exception to the ordinary rule requiring release once the required bond is given. It concerns pretrial detention, not a conviction or a new sentence of punishment. “Family violence” uses the Family Code definition, which includes specified family/household violence, child abuse and dating violence—not only violence between spouses. Final law; ordinary bond-release rule; family-violence definition.

Longer holds are not newly automatic. The existing law permits an additional period of no more than 48 hours only with a magistrate’s written authorization directed to the custodian and a conclusion that violence would continue on release. An additional period exceeding 24 hours requires the further statutory probable-cause findings concerning the current offense and specified arrests during the preceding 10 years: more than one family-violence arrest, or an arrest for another offense involving use or exhibition of a deadly weapon during the offense or immediate flight. Those are arrest-history conditions, not a requirement that every prior case produced a conviction. HB2492 retains this extension structure rather than making it mandatory. Final law, Section 1; deadly-weapon definition.

The change applies to people arrested on or after September 1, 2025. People arrested earlier remain under the former law even if bond is posted later. Final law, Sections 2–3; official history.

What changed along the way?

The introduced, House committee and engrossed versions contain the same substantive provisions. The Senate committee and enrolled versions differ only in printing/certification material. Both committees reported the bill without amendments, and the official amendment index lists none. The enacted change is the initial hold’s shift from “may” and “not more than” four hours to “shall” hold for four hours; the longer-hold conditions were already law. Introduced text; House committee text; text versions; amendment index.

For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.

Official bill versions

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?

Potential victims gain a required short separation period when the statutory danger finding is present. Affected defendants remain detained after posting bond, and holding agencies must accommodate the required time. Whether this reduces repeat violence is not measured in the fiscal documents. The law does not dispense with the probable-cause condition or guarantee safety after release. Final law.

The Legislative Budget Board’s May 19, 2025 engrossed fiscal note anticipates no significant state fiscal implication, but expressly says local governments could be affected by the required four-hour hold. It supplies no local dollar estimate. The April 7 introduced note agrees; the accompanying criminal-justice impact statement anticipates no significant state correctional-resource effect and identifies no new felony or felony punishment increase. Those findings should not be restated as “no local cost.” Engrossed fiscal note; introduced fiscal note; impact statement.

Official sources

Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.