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

← Back to bills

2025 · Regular session · Senate bill

SB610

SB610 expressly authorizes the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation to organize anti-trafficking work and protects information identifying trafficking victims.

Read bill highlights ↓

Official caption: Relating to combating human trafficking by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists Senate author(s): Paxton. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.

Report an error ↗

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.

Read the full explanation ↓

What does it do?

SB610 expressly authorizes the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation to organize anti-trafficking work and protects information identifying trafficking victims. The department may establish an anti-trafficking unit, identify affected businesses within the industries it regulates, and coordinate with the attorney general, law enforcement and nongovernmental organizations helping victims or combating trafficking. These activities are authorized, not a command to create a unit by a specified date. New Occupations Code Section 51.551.

The Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation may adopt anti-trafficking rules for any program the department regulates, including inspection and investigation rules under the existing Section 51.351. This is not unlimited authority over every business in Texas. The existing inspection law addresses regulated or suspected violator premises during reasonable business hours and pertinent records; SB610 references that framework rather than replacing it. Section 51.552; Existing inspection authority.

Information identifying a person as a human-trafficking victim is confidential and exempt from the Public Information Act’s general disclosure requirement. The department may withhold that information without first asking the attorney general for a decision. The provision concerns victim-identifying information, not a blanket declaration that every anti-trafficking record is secret. Signed May 19, 2025, the law took effect September 1, 2025. Sections 51.553 and 2; Official history.

What changed along the way?

All five posted versions—introduced, Senate committee, engrossed, House committee and enrolled—contain the same operative provisions. Both committees ultimately reported it without amendments; the amendment index lists none. The House committee initially failed to approve it, then reconsidered the vote, but that procedural event did not produce a different bill text. Introduced text; Version index; Amendment index; Committee history.

The final act adds the three-section anti-trafficking subchapter: activities, rulemaking and victim-information confidentiality. It does not enact a new trafficking crime, prescribe a new criminal sentence or itself require a new inspection fee. Complete enacted text.

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?

The agency may be better able to coordinate information and inspections with trafficking investigators and victim-service organizations. Victims may benefit from the express confidentiality protection and the ability to withhold identifying information without an individual attorney-general ruling. Regulated businesses may face rules or investigative attention within the authorized framework, while public requesters cannot obtain the protected identifying information. These are legal mechanisms, not evidence of a measured reduction in trafficking or a guaranteed outcome for a victim. Authority and confidentiality provisions.

The March 10 introduced-bill fiscal note—the only posted note, for text unchanged in the final law—anticipates no significant state or local fiscal impact and assumes implementation costs can be absorbed with existing resources. SB610 makes no appropriation and specifies no staffing level or quantified savings. Official fiscal note.

Official sources

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