The Senate Committee on State Affairs considered Senate Bill 1888, which would permit counties with populations under 1,000 to supplement their petit and grand jury pools with qualified residents from contiguous counties in the same judicial district.

Sponsor Sandra Sparks told senators many small, rural counties struggle to seat juries, which can delay trials or force cases to move. "This legislation would allow counties with a population under 1,000 to use residents from contiguous counties to backfill their jury pools," the sponsor said, explaining the committee substitute expands the measure to include grand juries and reduces the population threshold to 1,000.

Brandon Jones, constable of Loving County, described his county's practical problem: "If you look around this room, I counted 62 people. That is 8 fewer than the population of my county," he said, noting Loving County's roughly 70 residents and transient oil‑field workers. Jones said the county has not prosecuted a felony with a jury trial in over 40 years because many residents are related or otherwise disqualified.

Judge Shepherd, a policy analyst with the Texas Public Policy Foundation who testified in support, cited government code rules on jury disqualification and said SB 1888 would not change juror qualifications but would expand the pool of potential jurors by allowing contiguous counties to assist.

The chair opened and closed public testimony and left the bill pending for further consideration.