HBA-SEP H.B. 1854 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1854
By: Dunnam
Criminal Jurisprudence
4/6/2001
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Current law provides that the penalty for a person who operates a motor
vehicle on a highway in this state without a driver's license is not to
exceed $200.  Increasing the maximum penalty for such an offense committed
by a defendant who, within the year preceding the date of the offense,
committed an offense for which the defendant's driver's license could have
been suspended may reduce the number of such offenses. House Bill 1854
increases the maximum penalty.   

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 1854 amends the Transportation Code to provide that, if at the
trial of a person accused of operating a vehicle without a driver's license
it is shown that, within the year preceding the date of the offense for
which the defendant is being tried, the defendant was convicted of an
offense for which the defendant's driver's license could have been
suspended the offense is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less
than $100 or more than $500, confinement in county jail for a term of not
less than 72 hours or more than six months, or both the fine and the
confinement.   

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2001.