Cockfighting, restoring public assistance for drug offenders, and all things death penalty. Those are among the bills up for hearing in committees today at the Capitol.

The House Human Services Committee is slated to hear testimony today on a bill by Dallas Dem Rep. Alma Allen, House Bill 3397, which would remove a bar to receiving food stamp assistance by certain drug offenders. The bill simply seeks to allow former drug offenders to access Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits so long as they comply with program requirements, such as employment requirements. The Center for Public Policy Priorities reports that the bill would help offenders better reintegrate into communities, thus reducing recidivism, and comes at a "critical time," when lawmakers are considering eliminating more than $20 million in funds dedicated to reentry services.

Meanwhile, over in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, lawmakers will hear a raft of bills today – among them a bid to strengthen laws outlawing cockfighting in Texas by Rep. Wayne Christian, R-Center (HB 1043). Cockfighting has been illegal in Texas for nearly 100 years, but the laws are so weak as to be unenforceable in any meaningful way, Christian and other supporters argue.

The Committee will also consider a host of bills related to the death penalty – including the perennial bid to abolish the death penalty. Two bills on that subject will be considered, one by Houston Dem Rep. Jessica Farrar (HB 819) and another by Houston colleague Rep. Harold Dutton (HB 852). Also from Dutton is a bid to halt executions and to create a commission to study capital punishment in Texas, another returning favorite (HB 1641). A bill from Rep. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, seeks to amend rules related to certain hearsay statements made by defendants (HB 1973, a tinkering with confrontation rights that may meet with some challenges), while another bill by Dutton, HB 689, would make inadmissible the testimony of an accomplice or informant in a capital murder case if that testimony is part of an immunity deal, or any other promise of leniency. Moreover, the bill would restrict the admission into evidence of any "jail house confession" unless the statement is corroborated by electronic recording.

A full list of the bills to be considered by the committee can be found here.