SB1349

Transnational repression requires committing or conspiring to commit one of six specified offenses: trafficking of persons, assault, aggravated assault, harassment, stalking or compelling prostitution. The person must act as the foreign agent and intend to make another person act for the foreign government or organization; make another person leave or be confined in the United States; discourage protected speech or expression; or retaliate for that protected conduct. These are combined requirements, not a stand-alone ban on criticism, surveillance of any kind or ordinary foreign contacts. Protected conduct is speech or expression protected by the First Amendment or the Texas Constitution’s free-speech provision. Final law, section 76.045; Trafficking provision; Assault; Aggravated assault; Harassment; Stalking; Compelling prostitution.

The new repression offense is one category higher than the most serious listed offense committed or conspired to be committed. If that underlying offense is already a first-degree felony, the new offense remains first-degree with a 15-year minimum term of confinement. The act does not impose one identical sentence on every case, and the specific underlying offense and applicable sentencing rules still matter. Final law, section 76.045(c).

The second offense applies when a foreign agent, without Texas or United States approval, prevents someone in Texas from violating a foreign government’s laws, or detects, investigates, monitors or surveils that person for that purpose. It is a second-degree felony. The ordinary second-degree range is 2–20 years in prison and a possible fine up to $10,000; that range is not a promise of a particular outcome. The Texas-location, foreign-agent, purpose and lack-of-approval requirements are part of the offense. Final law, section 76.046; Ordinary second-degree punishment.

DPS must develop and regularly update training that helps peace officers identify repression, prevent and respond to it, recognize targeted communities and misinformation, and understand frequently involved governments, organizations and methods. The initial training deadline was April 1, 2026. DPS, working with the governor’s office, also had to study the threat and report conclusions and recommendations to every legislator by March 1, 2026. The study section expired April 1, 2026; that expiration does not sunset the offenses or the continuing training-update duty. These are the law’s requirements, not verification that the report or training was completed. Final law, sections 2–4.

The Senate substitute added trafficking and compelling prostitution to the underlying-offense list and added the intent to confine someone in the United States. It removed the introduced bill’s special Class A misdemeanor treatment with a 180-day minimum, leaving the general one-category increase and first-degree/15-year exception. It assigned training and the study to DPS rather than specifically its criminal investigations division. Those changes remained in the Senate-passed, House committee and final versions. Introduced bill; Senate substitute; Senate-passed text; House committee text; Text index; Final law.

A separate misinformation offense was proposed but rejected. Senator Gutierrez’s floor amendment would have criminalized specified knowing dissemination or financing of materially false or misleading information by foreign agents with stated influence, suppression or intimidation purposes. It proposed third-degree punishment, enhanced to second degree for specified targets, and a reasonable-belief/verification defense. The official history records its failure on April 24. It is not part of the enacted law, even though misinformation appears as a training topic. Complete rejected amendment; Amendment index; Disposition in official history; Final law.

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

People subjected to the specified foreign-agent conduct gain additional state criminal-law protection, while investigators and prosecutors must establish the new offenses’ elements. Defendants face enhanced or new criminal exposure; police and DPS have training and study responsibilities. The act does not create an automatic compensation award or establish that any named government, group or person committed an offense. Final law.

The March 16 and March 21 fiscal notes anticipate no significant overall state or local fiscal impact and assume implementation costs can be absorbed with existing resources. But they separately say the effect on correctional populations and resources cannot be determined because data do not establish how often the newly covered conduct occurs. These are not findings that incarceration costs must be zero. Introduced fiscal note; Substitute fiscal note.

The March 16 and March 22 criminal-justice impact statements likewise identify possible added correctional demands and an indeterminate effect. Their totals for existing underlying offenses are background data, not forecasts of transnational-repression prosecutions. The introduced statement describes a proposal later changed; the final text controls. The act makes no appropriation. Introduced impact statement; Substitute impact statement; Final law.