2025 · Regular session · Senate bill
SB693
SB693 adds notary education, a ten-year record-retention rule and a criminal offense for knowingly notarizing for a person who did not personally appear.
Official caption: Relating to notaries public; creating a criminal offense; authorizing a fee.
Official report lists Senate author(s): West. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
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.
- SB693 adds notary education, a ten-year record-retention rule and a criminal offense for knowingly notarizing for a person who did not personally appear.
- The secretary of state must establish education for initial appointments and continuing education before reappointment, with no more than two hours required for each.
- The new offense requires knowledge that the signer, grantor, maker or principal did not personally appear when notarization occurred.
- Records required by Section 406.014(a) must be retained until the tenth anniversary of notarization.
What does it do?
SB693 adds notary education, a ten-year record-retention rule and a criminal offense for knowingly notarizing for a person who did not personally appear. It became law without the governor’s signature on May 30, 2025. The act’s effective date is September 1, 2025; its application transition expressly covers appointment or reappointment applications submitted on or after January 1, 2026 and preserves earlier law for earlier applications. Rules were required by January 1, 2026. Sections 1–9; Official history.
The secretary of state must establish education for initial appointments and continuing education before reappointment, with no more than two hours required for each. Required hours may be completed only through secretary-of-state courses, for which the agency may charge a reasonable fee. The act sets no fee amount. People appointed before September 1, 2025 cannot be required to take the new initial-appointment education merely because of this law; this is not an exemption from continuing education on reappointment. Sections 1, 4 and 6–8.
The new offense requires knowledge that the signer, grantor, maker or principal did not personally appear when notarization occurred. It is a Class A misdemeanor, increased to a state jail felony when the document involves transfer of real property or any interest in it. Ordinary notarizations require physical presence permitting communication and identification; online notarizations permit simultaneous two-way video and audio meeting the agency’s online-notarization standards. There is an affirmative defense where the person who appeared knowingly presented apparently valid identification as the purported signer, regardless of actual identity. The law does not criminalize every notarial mistake or ban compliant online notarization. Section 3, Government Code 406.0091; Existing online-standards authority.
Records required by Section 406.014(a) must be retained until the tenth anniversary of notarization. Failure to maintain the required records becomes express good cause for rejecting an application or suspending or revoking a commission; the existing notice, hearing and appeal protections remain. The new retention provision does not rewrite the existing exemptions or electronic-storage permission in the underlying record law. Sections 2 and 5; Underlying record requirements and exceptions; Existing discipline procedure.
What changed along the way?
The introduced bill proposed a different offense: using a notary or counterfeit seal on a presumptively fraudulent document and filing or trying to file it with specified court or county clerks. That proposal did not survive as written. The Senate committee substitute replaced it with the knowing nonappearance offense and added education, record retention, discipline and transition provisions. Introduced proposal; Senate substitute; Final law.
The sole indexed floor amendment, offered by Senator West and adopted April 9, changed the course-price clause to permit the secretary of state to charge a reasonable price for each course. The House substitute then used “reasonable fee,” expanded the felony clause to transfers of any interest in real property, and replaced a blanket prohibition on other course providers with the narrower rule that required hours count only through agency courses. Those House changes appear unchanged in the enrolled law; the Senate concurred May 20. Amendment disposition; West amendment; All five versions; House substitute; Concurrence history.
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?
People relying on notarized documents, including property owners, may benefit from stronger accountability and retained records. Notaries face training time, any agency course fee, record-storage obligations and possible discipline or criminal liability for the specified conduct. These are mechanisms intended to improve reliability, not proof that fraud will fall. Enacted duties, offense and safeguards.
The final-version fiscal note, revised May 10, estimates a $1,600,346 negative impact on general-revenue-related funds for fiscal years 2026–2027: $1,032,113 in 2026 and $568,233 in 2027. It assumes ten additional state positions, including two education positions supported by fee receipts, and includes $400,000 for an online learning system. The fee-receipt estimates are $186,237 in 2026 and $170,267 annually in 2027–2030, offset by equal program costs; these are not fees charged to each notary. The bill itself appropriates no money. Local enforcement, prosecution and confinement effects are assumed not significant. The criminal-justice statement likewise assumes no significant correctional impact, not that no prosecutions can occur. May 10 fiscal note, revision 1; Criminal-justice impact statement.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
