2025 · Regular session · Senate bill
SB860
SB860 abolishes the Criminal Justice Legislative Oversight Committee and redirects or preserves two existing agency reports.
Official caption: Relating to abolishing the Criminal Justice Legislative Oversight Committee.
Official report lists Senate author(s): Flores. 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.
- SB860 abolishes the Criminal Justice Legislative Oversight Committee and redirects or preserves two existing agency reports.
- Repealing Government Code Chapter 328 removes the six-member legislative oversight body and its statutory research, policy-recommendation and reporting duties.
- The Texas Department of Criminal Justice director’s annual report on management–employee meetings must now go to each legislative standing committee with primary jurisdiction over the department.
What does it do?
SB860 abolishes the Criminal Justice Legislative Oversight Committee and redirects or preserves two existing agency reports. It was signed and took effect June 20, 2025, having received the votes required for immediate effect. It does not abolish the Legislature’s standing criminal-justice committees, the prison department or the parole board. Final act; History.
Repealing Government Code Chapter 328 removes the six-member legislative oversight body and its statutory research, policy-recommendation and reporting duties. The former chapter also authorized staffing or contracts, funded through Texas Legislative Council appropriations, and required a recommendations report by January 1 of each odd-numbered year. SB860 does not transfer that whole set of committee duties to a replacement body. Section 1; Former membership; Former duties; Former staffing authority; Former report.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice director’s annual report on management–employee meetings must now go to each legislative standing committee with primary jurisdiction over the department. Required signatures and statements about recruitment, retention and morale remain. The Board of Pardons and Paroles’ annual report on applying parole guidelines still goes to the lieutenant governor, House speaker and the relevant Senate and House committee chairs; only the abolished committee is removed from that recipient list. Sections 2–3; Management–employee report; Parole-guidelines report.
What changed along the way?
All five versions were read and compared; the operative text is unchanged from introduction through enrollment. The index lists no amendments. The final certification records votes of 29–1 in the Senate and 133–4 in the House, meeting the immediate-effect threshold; the printed September 1 fallback did not govern. Final certification and effective-date clause.
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 law removes a separate statutory forum for criminal-justice research and recommendations while keeping the two specified agency reporting duties. It may reduce duplicate committee administration, but the text alone does not establish that oversight quality improves or declines. No sentencing, parole-eligibility or prison-release rule is changed by these provisions. Enacted changes.
The sole March 23 fiscal note anticipates no significant state fiscal impact, assumes associated costs and savings would be insignificant, and anticipates no local-government fiscal impact. It does not identify a quantified budget saving or number of positions eliminated.
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.
