First bills filed for legislative session
Posted/updated on: November 16, 2024 at 2:25 pm
AUSTIN – The Texas Tribune reports that lawmakers in the Texas House and Senate filed more than a thousand pieces of legislation Tuesday, offering an early look at the issues they hope to prioritize when they gavel in for the 89th legislative session in January.
Tuesday marked the first day lawmakers could file bills they hope to pass when the Texas Legislature reconvenes next year. Republicans control both chambers and expanded their majority in the House and Senate after flipping a handful of seats during this year’s elections. The ouster of many Republicans by challengers further to their right during this year’s primaries means that the Texas GOP’s far-right wing will have unprecedented sway over the upcoming legislative session. Few of those lawmakers filed bills on Tuesday, but it’s likely they’ll seek to push the Legislature’s already deep-red agenda even further right once they file their own bills.
Lawmakers typically file thousands of bills in the course of a legislative session, and most never make it to the governor’s desk. The lowest bill numbers are reserved for the highest priority bills set by the House speaker and lieutenant governor, who leads the Senate. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced last week that his top policy priority will be Senate Bill 2, which is expected to propose a program that lets families use tax dollars to pay for their children’s private schooling. Other priorities have yet to be announced.
Texas is expected to have plenty of cash to fund any new mandates. State Comptroller Glenn Hegar projected the state will have a $20 billion surplus at the start of the 2025 session on Jan. 14.
Here’s a look at some of the notable bills filed Tuesday.
Some of the topics covered in the first day of filing for 2025 session
Property taxes
Abortion
Public education
Higher education
Border and immigration
Elections
LGBTQ+ rights
Marriage
Criminal justice
Energy
Health
Guns
Workers’ wages
DEI
Property taxes
Republican lawmakers for years have been pushing to bring down the state’s property taxes, which are among the highest in the nation. Last year, legislators approved a $12.7 billion package that included tax breaks for homeowners and money for school districts to lower how much they collect in property taxes. A Texas Tribune analysis showed many residents have seen significant tax reductions as a result of the last several years of property tax cuts. The amount of taxes school districts collected from property owners fell by nearly 10% between 2022 and 2023, according to figures provided by the Texas Comptroller’s office.
Lawmakers filed dozens of bills Tuesday seeking to further lower Texans’ property taxes. Rep. Cody Vasut, R-Angleton, filed a bill that would eliminate property taxes altogether and create a committee to study “alternative methods of taxation” to replace them. Eliminating all local property taxes would cost the state an estimated $81.5 billion, based on figures presented by the Legislative Budget Board. Spending that much on tax cuts would likely require a significant increase in the sales tax, lawmakers have said.
Several proposed bills would use the state’s surplus revenue to offset property taxes. For example, House Bill 264, filed by Rep. Keith Bell, R-Forney, would dedicate half of any budget surplus every two years to tax relief. House Bill 275, filed by Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, would use the surplus to further reduce the amount of money that school districts collect in property taxes. House Bill 378, filed by Rep. Christina Morales, D-Houston, would increase the homestead exemption — the portion of a home’s value that is exempted from taxation — from $100,000 to $200,000. The state would make up the school district’s loss in revenue.
Several lawmakers filed bills that would limit increases in a property’s appraised value. Such caps could create inequities between taxpayers, experts have warned. New homeowners could end up paying significantly more than those who have owned homes for a long time. And the cap could also disrupt the housing market by enticing people to stay in their homes for longer in order to obtain the tax benefit, thus reducing the number of homes that become available each year.
Abortion
Rep. Donna Howard, an Austin Democrat and one of the chamber’s loudest voices in support of abortion access, filed two bills that would expand when a health care provider can legally perform an abortion.
The current law allows doctors to terminate a pregnancy when, in their “reasonable medical judgment,” it is necessary to save the life of the patient. While Republican lawmakers and anti-abortion activists say the law is clear, dozens of women have come forward with stories of delayed or denied medical care. At least two women died after doctors hesitated to treat them because of worries about the law’s strict penalties. Last week, more than 100 Texas OB/GYNs signed a letter saying the near-total ban has restricted them from providing high-quality, evidence-based care to their patients.
Under HB 257, physicians would be able to rely on their “best medical judgment,” which could not be overruled by an external review process. It would additionally allow abortions to preserve a patient’s mental health or future fertility, and in cases where the fetus is either not going to survive after birth or is “incompatible with life without extraordinary medical interventions.” HB 395, also filed by Howard, would allow abortions in cases of rape or incest. Six Democrats filed a companion bill for each of these proposals in the Senate.
Howard and other Democratic lawmakers filed a slew of similar bills last session. None received a hearing.
On the other side of the issue, Rep. Steve Toth filed HB 1004, which would empower the Texas Attorney General to unilaterally prosecute certain crimes, including election and abortion-related offenses. A similar measure did not pass last session.
Public education
Some Republicans and conservative groups have long advocated for “school choice,” or the idea that the state should support families that decide not to send their children to public schools. Last year, Republican lawmakers attempted to pass a bill that would have created “education savings accounts,” a type of school voucher program that would provide public funds directly to families to help them pay for their children’s private schooling and other educational expenses.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the leader of the Senate, said last week that establishing a voucher program in Texas would be his top legislative priority, while Gov. Greg Abbott said the House has enough votes to get it approved. At least one bill proposing a voucher program was filed Tuesday, and more are likely to come.
House Bill 212, proposed by Cain, would establish a process for parents or legal guardians to get reimbursed by the state for enrolling their children into private schools. Any school-aged child would be eligible for the program.
Several Republicans also filed legislation that would guide or limit what learning materials children are exposed to in school. House Bill 183, introduced by Rep. Jared Patterson of Frisco, would give the GOP-dominated State Board of Education the power to prohibit school districts from using library materials it considers “inappropriate” or “sexually explicit.” Local school districts typically make those decisions.
House Bill 196, filed by Vasut, would require schools to teach “that human life begins at conception and has inherent dignity and immeasurable worth from the moment of conception.”
Senate Bill 86, a proposal by Sen. Bob Hall, an Edgewood Republican, would prohibit classroom instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity. Hall also filed legislation that would make school board elections partisan and require that they occur on the same day as midterms or the general election.
Houston Democratic Rep. Christina Morales filed House Bill 178, reviving legislation that seeks to include ethnic studies as part of the required social studies curriculum. Public education advocates have sought to ensure students are learning about historically underserved groups — like Black and Indigenous communities — different from their own.
Two bills, one from a Republican and the other from a Democrat, were filed to change the way Texas schools are funded. The current attendance-based funding system has resulted in schools losing out on money if kids aren’t showing up to class. Advocates of changing the system say basing it on enrollment would offer schools more financial stability.
Higher education
Last legislative session, some of the most contentious higher education bills were Patrick’s priority legislation to end diversity, equity and inclusion offices, which went into effect at the start of the year, and a bill that initially intended to eliminate faculty tenure, which was approved but watered down.
At a Senate Higher Education subcommittee meeting Monday, Republican senators signaled a broad openness to further curtailing faculty’s powers, reinforcing the authority of the boards of regents over public universities and continuing to eliminate DEI programs. Legislation surrounding those issues has not yet been filed.
On Tuesday, multiple Republican House members filed identical versions of a bill to stop providing in-state tuition to certain undocumented students who live in Texas.
In 2001, lawmakers passed the Texas Dream Act, which extends in-state tuition to undocumented students who graduated from a Texas high school, lived in Texas for three years before graduating and lived in the state for a year before enrolling at a Texas public college or university. Students who qualify must sign an affidavit declaring their intent to apply for permanent resident status as soon as they are able. The Texas Dream Act also applies to students who are not U.S. citizens but are authorized to be in the country.
Lawmakers have tried to eliminate the Texas Dream Act in the past without success. But as the Texas House shifts further to the right, it may find renewed support.
Another bill, House Bill 281 would require the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to eliminate or sanction degree programs when graduates would generally have trouble paying for their student loan debt with their expected earnings. Graduates in high-earning fields like medicine and law often have higher student loans but find it easier to pay for them because of their earning potential, while graduates in lower-paying degrees like education and social work may struggle to manage their debt even if they took out fewer loans.
Texas Rep. Carl Tepper, R-Lubbock, filed the bill at a time when Republicans are playing offense on higher education. Public perception of the value of a college degree has also been declining, as people become increasingly skeptical of student loan debt.
Meanwhile, Sen. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, filed a bill requiring all public college and university students to take an economics course to graduate.
Border and immigration
Almost two dozen border and immigration-related bills filed Tuesday suggest some Republican lawmakers will remain bullish on those issues.
House Bill 354, filed by Cain, would create a Texas Border Protection Unit whose officers would have the authority to arrest people who cross the Texas-Mexico border illegally — mirroring U.S. Border Patrol’s job. The unit would also oversee construction and maintenance of physical barriers, including the state’s border wall.
A similar measure failed last year but has vocal support from immigration hardliners like Texans for Strong Borders.
Senate Bill 81, filed by Hall, would give the Department of Public Safety “during a state of invasion or imminent danger on the Texas-Mexico border” the authority to return to Mexico people seen entering Texas illegally or who are arrested near the border. Abbott invoked the invasion clause of the U.S. and Texas constitutions in 2022 to justify the state’s ongoing border operations. The bill would also let DPS use force to “detect, repel, apprehend, detain, and arrest known transnational cartel operatives in the border region.” The bill does not give a definition of who would be considered a cartel operative.
Another bill filed by Hall — SB 134 — would require counties and cities to request and enter partnerships with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to authorize officers and employees of the municipality or county to enforce federal immigration law. The attorney general’s office could seek injunctive relief against counties and cities that do not make such requests. The partnerships — known as 287(g) agreements — could help with extra staffing to carry out the Trump administration’s ambitious immigration crackdown.
A pair of companion bills — filed in the House by Rep. Ryan Guillen, R-Rio Grande City, and in the Senate by Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas — would offer student loan repayment help for lawyers who work at least one year for the state’s border prosecution unit. The unit — created by the Legislature in 2009 — is a coalition of border district attorney’s offices. The number of cases filed and prosecuted in those offices has exploded in recent years since Texas launched its multi-billion dollar border initiative, Operation Lone Star, which has resulted in thousands of criminal trespass and human smuggling arrests.
Another bill filed Tuesday calls for DPS to fingerprint undocumented children for a database to be used “to investigate the frequency with which a child … has entered the United States unlawfully through the international border with Mexico.”
It is unclear if the Department of Justice under Trump’s administration would contest Texas’ authority to create and enforce immigration-related state laws. President-elect Trump has said he wants to help border states like Texas.
Last year’s Senate Bill 4, which gives police the authority to arrest people suspected of having entered the country illegally, has yet to go into effect after the U.S. Justice Department sued to stop it; the legal dispute remains unresolved. The federal government argued that Texas’ law encroached on the authority of the federal government, who has been solely responsible for immigration enforcement. It is unclear whether the Trump administration will continue the lawsuit.
Elections
Earlier this year, Abbott said the state had removed more than 6,500 potential noncitizens from its voter rolls. An investigation by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and Votebeat found that number was likely inflated and, in some cases, wrong.
Nonetheless, Republican lawmakers Cain and Sen. Bryan Hughes of Mineola filed bills that would require Texans applying to register to vote to provide proof of citizenship. Arizona is the only state in the country with such a requirement in place. Hughes proposed similar legislation last year but it did not move forward.
Rep. Valoree Swanson, R-Spring, proposed a bill that would designate certain licensed peace officers to serve as election marshals. Election marshals would have the powers and duties of state inspectors, including investigating alleged election code violations. A similar piece of legislation passed the Senate last year but was not approved by the House.
Toth also filed a slate of bills clamping down on election security. House Bill 1001 would require poll workers to provide paper ballots to voters who request one, a measure aimed at addressing concerns that voting machines are rigged (those claims have been broadly debunked). House Bill 999 mandates that the custodian of election records shares ballots people used to cast their votes or their images with anyone who requests them for inspection within 60 days of an election.
Austin Democratic Rep. John Bucy, meanwhile, filed several pieces of legislation that would expand voter access and education. House Bill 374 would designate certain election days as state holidays, and House Bill 665 specifies information the secretary of state’s website must contain about upcoming elections.
A group of Democratic Texas senators also filed legislation directing county commissioners’ courts to designate at least one polling place on college campuses with at least 5,000 students, and at least two polling stations on college campuses with 10,000 students. One more polling place must be added to each campus for every additional 10,000 students enrolled at that college or university. The legislation comes after multiple counties across the state removed early voting locations from college campuses during the most recent election despite pushback from students.
LGBTQ+ rights
Last session, Texas Republicans passed some of the most aggressive anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the country, outlawing gender-affirming care for minors and severely limiting drag performances.
Bills filed Tuesday show that Republicans plan to go even further this session. HB 847 would ban the use of any taxpayer resources for “gender reassignment” — including the funding of health benefits that cover gender reassignment for adults. The bill, filed by Harrison, provides exceptions for those defined as “intersex.”
Another bill would make it a felony for public schools or universities to conduct or permit any study of children’s sexual behavior. Hall, the author of that bill, also filed legislation that’d require school districts to inform parents if their child’s perception of their biological sex is “inconsistent” with their “sex organs, chromosomes and endogenous hormone profiles.” The bill would also allow parents to sue districts that fail to inform them about curriculum involving sexual orientation or gender.
Hall also filed a bill that would prohibit government health insurance programs from covering gender-affirming care, and increase civil liabilities for doctors who offer transition-related medical procedures.
Another bill filed by Toth would allow drag performers to be sued by children who attended their performances — even if the child was brought to the performance by their parents.
HB 778, filed by Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican from McKinney, would require health insurance plans that pay for gender-affirming care to also cover the costs of any adverse consequences related to the treatment, as well as any treatments to reverse the patient’s transition.
Some Republicans seem to also want to resurrect the idea of a “bathroom bill,” legislation that would prohibit people from using a bathroom that doesn’t align with the sex they were assigned at birth. A previous attempt in 2017 died after months of controversy, but Toth and Sen. Mayes Middleton, a Republican from Galveston, have both filed bills that aim to reignite the issue.
