Budget Bill & Other Legislation Moving in House and Senate as Deadlines Approach

The 89^th Legislature continued to work on bills as the end of session approached when they gavel out for Sine Die on June 2^nd – in just 6 more days. A number of bills and topics were addressed throughout the weekend as both chambers worked on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

As of May 19^th there were 272 house and senate bills had passed while at the start of Tuesday, May 27^th, just over one week later, 700 house and senate bills passed.

To compare to the last session, as of the morning of the 134^th day, 369 house bills and 325 senate bills had passed out of the 88th Legislative Session for a total of 694 bills.

For this session, as of the morning of the 134^th day, 316 house bills and 384 senate bills had passed out of the 89^th Legislative Session for a total of 700 bills.

May 28^th marks the 135^th day of session and is the last day for the House to consider ALL 3^rd reading SBs/SJRs on the supplemental calendar which means any 2^nd reading SB/SJR still left on the calendar by midnight May 27^th is largely considered dead unless someone revives that language as an amendment on moving legislation.

These calendar deadlines mean that there will be a lot of legislation moving in the final days. See below for a spotlight on bills that moved over the weekend and bills that are on the immediate horizon.

Both chambers start this morning at 10:00 am. The deliberations can be viewed at the following links:  House | Senate

Budget Bill Documents

The Legislative Budget Board released the initial budget decision documents this morning.

Memorial Day Weekend SPOTLIGHT:

Finally passed

• HB 12 (Bell) Review and audit of certain state agency operations
• HB 2018 (Ashby) Texas Farm and Ranch Lands Conservation Program
• SB 3 (Perry) Regulation of consumable hemp products and the hemp-derived cannabinoids
• SB 11 (Middleton) Prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious text in public schools
• SB 20 (Flores) Creation of the criminal offense of possession or promotion of obscene visual material appearing to depict a child
• SB 33 (Campbell) Certain prohibited transactions and support between a governmental entity and an abortion provider for the procurement of an abortion or related services
• SB 75 (Hall) Relating to the resilience of the electric grid and certain municipalities
• SB 843 (Kolkhorst) TEA database of school district and open-enrollment charter school bonds, taxes, and bond-related project
• SB 1664 (Schwertner) Public information regarding the rates of a transmission and distribution utility
• SB 1789 (Schwertner) Electric service quality and reliability
• SB 2148 (Hall) Reliability of the electricity supply chain

ALL bills passed both chambers can be found here.

Still needs opposite chamber approval

• HB 18 (VanDeaver) Relating to the establishment and administration of certain programs and providing health care services to rural counties
• HB 26 (Hull) Relating to requiring contracts with Medicaid managed care organizations to permit the organizations to offer nutrition counseling and instruction services
• HB 103 (Troxclair) Relating to the creation and maintenance of a database of taxing unit bonds, taxes, and bond-related projects
• HB 120 (Bell) Relating to career and technology education programs in public schools, the Rural Pathway Excellence Partnership (R-PEP) program
• HB 144 (King) Relating to exemptions to competitive requirements for purchases of certain services by a municipality
• HB 145 (King) Relating to risk mitigation planning and associated liability for providers of electric service
• HB 1500 (Bell) Relating to the continuation and functions of the Department of Information Resources
• HB 2974 (Craddick) Relating to the authority of certain municipalities to use certain tax revenue for a hotel and convention center project
• SB 10 (King) Relating to the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms
• SB 12 (Creighton) Relating to parental rights in public education
• SB 22 (Huffman) Relating to the establishment and funding of the Texas moving image industry incentive program
• SB 25 (Kolkhorst) Relating to health and nutrition standards to promote healthy living
• SB 261 (Perry) Relating to a prohibition on the sale of cell-cultured protein for human consumption
• SB 3070 (Hall) Relating to the abolishment of the Texas Lottery Commission and the transfer of the administration of the lottery bingo to the Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation

TODAY SPOTLIGHT:

Spotlight on Supplemental House Calendar 3rd Reading:

• SB 6  (King) Planning for, interconnection and operation of, and costs related to providing service for certain electrical loads
• SB 7 (Perry) Oversight and financing of certain water infrastructure
• SB 13 (Buckley) School district’s library materials and catalog
• SB 30 (Bonnen) Recovery of health care-related damages

House Second Reading Spotlight:

• SJR 1 (Huffman) Denial of bail under certain circumstances
• SB 414 (Middleton) The text of ballot propositions for bond elections
• SB 961 (Kolkhorst) Fraud prevention and verifying eligibility for benefits under Medicaid
• SB 1307 (Cook) TDI biennial health coverage reference guide
• SB 1447 (Menendez) TEA standards regarding the use of electronic devices and software applications by public schools
• SB 2321 (King) Regulation of emissions by the TCEQ during certain events
• SB 1964 (Parker) AI systems and the management of data by governmental entities

List of ALL Bills on House Calendar (today is the last day for the House to consider 2^nd reading SBs/SJRs)

Conference Committee Reports

CCRs are now available for:

• SB 17 Relating to the purchase of or acquisition of title to real property by certain aliens or foreign entities
• SB 1637 Relating to the prosecution of the offense of deadly conduct