June 22, 2025
Article IX, Section 18.65 appropriates $2,855,277 in fiscal year 2026 and $2,280,783 in fiscal year 2027 from the General Revenue Fund to the Department of Public Safety, contingent on enactment of Senate Bill 1723 establishing a rapid DNA analysis pilot program in certain counties. The contingency was satisfied: a footnote in the Department of Public Safety bill pattern within the same act states that the appropriation incorporates Article IX, Section 18.65 due to the enactment of S.B. 1723, in the same amounts. S.B. 1723 adds Government Code Sec. 411.1465, directing the department to establish the pilot in order to optimize the reporting of DNA records and reduce the number of arrests for which a DNA sample is not collected and analyzed, by assisting law enforcement agencies in implementing rapid DNA analysis of samples collected under Sec. 411.1471(b). The statute does not name the participating counties. The department was to begin updating information technology systems by September 1, 2025 and to begin implementing the pilot in two counties of its own selection by September 1, 2026, with discretion to expand to additional counties. A report to the legislature on the pilot and on any recommendation to continue or expand it is due by January 1, 2028, and the section expires September 1, 2028. For pilot purposes, Sec. 411.1465(a) defines rapid DNA analysis as the fully automated processing of a reference buccal swab sample to provide a DNA record eligible for CODIS comparison in not more than two hours without submitting the sample to a crime laboratory; the general definition added at Sec. 411.141(13) allows not more than 24 hours. The act separately permits a law enforcement agency to perform rapid DNA analysis with the director's authorization under Sec. 411.146(c-1), and requires the director to establish standards for that analysis meeting or exceeding FBI standards for quality assurance and proficiency testing.