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 · Senate bill

SB663

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Official caption: Relating to the approval of a community supervision and corrections department's budget and strategic plan.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists Senate author(s): Huffman. 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.

SB663 gives the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Community Justice Assistance Division approval authority over local community supervision and corrections departments’ budgets and strategic plans.
As a condition of the specified state aid, the department must submit its budget for the state fiscal biennium and its strategic plan and obtain division approval.
Community supervision and corrections departments are removed from Local Government Code Section 140.004’s separate county-budget preparation, meeting and filing procedures, financial-statement requirements and automobile-allowance restriction.

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What does it do?

SB663 gives the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Community Justice Assistance Division approval authority over local community supervision and corrections departments’ budgets and strategic plans. The criminal-court judges who establish these departments now review the budget and plan after division approval, instead of approving them first. Judges retain their fiscal-officer appointment role; the act does not remove every judicial responsibility for the department. Sections 1–2; Division definition; Retained judicial responsibilities.

As a condition of the specified state aid, the department must submit its budget for the state fiscal biennium and its strategic plan and obtain division approval. Revised strategic plans remain due by March 1 in each even-numbered year. Either the budget or plan may be amended at any time with division approval. The act also expressly includes the budget in required submissions and supporting information. Sections 3–5.

Community supervision and corrections departments are removed from Local Government Code Section 140.004’s separate county-budget preparation, meeting and filing procedures, financial-statement requirements and automobile-allowance restriction. That section continues to govern the listed juvenile bodies. This is not an abolition of all audits or spending controls: the act retains required financial records, periodic audits and statistical reports to the division. Signed June 20, 2025, it took effect September 1, 2025. Sections 3 and 6–7; Prior county-budget section; History.

What changed along the way?

The introduced bill already shifted approval from judges to the division, but would have required both the next biennial budget and revised strategic plan by March 1 of each even-numbered year. The Senate substitute kept that explicit deadline only for the revised plan and put the ability to amend either document with division approval in its own subsection. The budget submission and approval condition remains, but the introduced March 1 budget deadline did not survive. Introduced text; Senate substitute.

The Senate substitute also added the removal of community supervision and corrections departments from Section 140.004. The engrossed, House committee and enrolled texts retain the substitute’s operative language. The amendment index lists none, and the House reported without amendments. Version index; Amendment index; Final 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 state division gains a stronger formal checkpoint over budgets tied to state aid, and local judges move from approval to subsequent review. Departments may face a different approval workflow while no longer following Section 140.004’s separate county process. This changes accountability and administration; it does not itself increase probation funding, change an individual’s sentence or demonstrate reduced reoffending. Approval and reporting changes.

Both fiscal notes—the April 14 introduced note and April 16 substitute note—anticipate no significant state or local fiscal impact and assume costs can be absorbed with existing resources. The act appropriates no money and does not quantify savings from the revised process. Existing state-aid funding rules remain relevant; division approval is not a promise of a particular grant amount. Introduced fiscal note; Substitute fiscal note; State-aid framework.

Official sources

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