Budget
HB 1: Sent to Abbott on May 26
The state’s two-year budget plan calls for spending roughly $250 billion on priorities including public school funding, teacher salaries and early childhood intervention programs. Read more
Property tax reform
SB 2: Sent to Abbott on May 25
This bill, a top priority of Texas’ three main political leaders, would require voter approval when local governments want to increase their property tax revenues by more than 3.5%. Read more
School finance reform
HB 3: Sent to Abbott on May 25
HB 3 would be a complete overhaul of Texas public school finance. It aims to increase per-student funding, expand pre-K offerings and lessen the state’s reliance on “Robin Hood” payments from wealthier schools. The measure also includes pay raises for veteran teachers and other school employees. Read more
Creating a state flood infrastructure fund
SB 7: Sent to Abbott on May 26
This bill would create special flood infrastructure funds to help communties harmed by natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Read more
School safety
SB 11: Sent to Abbott on May 26
In the first session since 10 people were fatally shot at Santa Fe High School, lawmakers wrote this school safety measure that would strengthen mental health initiatives in schools, require classrooms to have access to a telephone or other electronic communication, and create teams that identify potentially dangerous students. The bill was amended in the House to include the creation of a Texas Mental Health Consortium — originally part of SB 10, which died hours earlier on a technicality. Read more
Teacher pension fix
SB 12: Sent to Abbott on May 26
This bill would shore up the teacher pension fund in Texas. It would increase state contributions and give retirees a one-time additional check. Read more
“Born alive” act
HB 16: Sent to Abbott on May 23
This proposal would require doctors to treat a baby born alive in the rare instance of a failed abortion attempt. Read more
Raising the smoking age
SB 21: Sent to Abbott on May 21
This measure would raise the legal age to buy tobacco products from 18 to 21, except for military personnel. Read more
Defunding abortion providers
SB 22: Sent to Abbott on May 24
This measure would prohibit state and local governments from partnering with agencies that perform abortions, even if they contract for services not related to the procedure. Read more
Rules governing alcohol sales
HB 1545: Sent to Abbott on May 24
This bill is part of the state’s regular sunset process, which requires agencies to undergo regular efficiency reviews or face closure. Lawmakers in the Senate amended the bill to allow breweries to sell beer to go and allow individuals to hold up to 250 liquor store permits. Read more
Red-light cameras
HB 1631: Sent to Abbott on May 17
The days of red-light cameras monitoring Texas drivers may be numbered if this bill becomes law, but the devices could still linger in some communities for a few more years, as it would only prevent cities from renewing their contracts with vendors. Read more
Religious freedom
SB 1978: Sent to Abbott on May 23
Known by supporters as the “Save Chick-fil-A Bill,” this proposal would prevent government entities from taking adverse action against people or businesses based on their religion. But some members of the LGBTQ community fear it would be a license to discriminate. Read more
Repealing the Driver Responsibility Program
HB 2048: Sent to Abbott on May 23
HB 2048 would eliminate this much-maligned program, which critics say traps low-income Texans in a cycle of debt. It has survived past attempts to kill it because money from fines helps fund the state’s emergency trauma care system. The bill offers alternative funding sources for trauma care. Read more
Extending statute of limitations for sex abuse lawsuits
HB 3809: Sent to Abbott on May 24
This bill doubles the amount of time that victims of certain types of sexual abuse have to sue abusers or entities, from 15 years to 30 years after a victim turns 18.
Vetoed or failed
Sales tax increase
HJR 3: Failed to pass on May 7
Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen proposed increasing the sales tax by 1 percentage point and using that money to lower property taxes statewide. The measure failed to gain popular support among rank-and-file lawmakers, however. Read more
Elections
SB 9: Missed key deadline on May 19
This wide-ranging legislation would have elevated the penalty for Texans who vote when they’re ineligible — even if they did so unknowingly. They also would have been subject to a felony charge that could include jail time and a fine up to $10,000. But the bill failed to make it onto the House’s calendar. Read more
Lobbying ban
SB 13: Missed key deadline on May 19
Every session, the Texas Capitol draws lobbyists who were previously members of the Legislature. This bill would have banned members of the Texas House and Senate from certain kinds of lobbying for a period of time — about two years in most cases — after they stepped down from their elected offices. But the bill never made it onto the House agenda.
Lessen pot penalties
HB 63: Missed key deadline on May 22
People caught possessing small amounts of marijuana would have faced smaller criminal penalties — a Class C misdemeanor instead of a Class B misdemeanor — under this bill that passed in the House but was declared dead on arrival in the Senate by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Read more
Daylight saving time
HJR 117: Missed key deadline on May 22
This proposal would have eliminated twice-a-year time changes and let voters decide in November on Texas’ permanent time. Voters would choose between exempting the state from daylight saving time or observing daylight saving time year-round. Read more
Scooter regulation
SB 549: Missed key deadline on May 19
Texans would have been banned from riding electric scooters on sidewalks under this measure, which also would have required that scooter users be at least 16 years old. It also would have prohibited more than two people from riding a scooter at once. But it missed a key deadline and never made it to the House floor for a vote. Read more
Ban on certain abortions
SB 1033: Missed key deadline on May 19
This controversial bill would have banned abortions on the basis of the sex, race or disability of a fetus and criminalized doctors who perform what opponents call “discriminatory abortions.” It would have also disallowed abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy even if the fetus has “severe and irreversible” abnormalities. It missed the deadline for making it onto the House agenda. Read more
Intellectual disability and the death penalty
HB 1139: Missed key deadline on May 25
It’s been more than 15 years since the U.S. Supreme Court said executing prisoners who are intellectually disabled is unconstitutional. This bill originally would have created a pretrial process to determine if a capital murder defendant is intellectually disabled. It changed in a Senate committee to simply codify existing rulings from the high court that those with intellectual disabilities couldn’t be sentenced to death and that such determinations must align with current medical standards. Read more
Confederate monuments
SB 1663: Missed key deadline on May 19
As Texas cities and universities weighed whether to remove Confederate monuments from public land, some lawmakers wanted to give the Legislature more say in those decisions. This bill would have required that two-thirds of members in both chambers approved of the removal, relocation or alteration of any monuments or memorials that have been on state property for more than 25 years. It missed a key deadline in the House and never received a vote from the full chamber. Read more
Bail reform
HB 2020: Missed key deadline on May 22
This legislation would have created a pretrial risk assessment tool for county officials to use when making bail decisions. The tool would have considered a defendant’s likelihood of posing danger or skipping court hearings. The bill came after bail practices in Dallas and Harris were found to be unconstitutional for discriminating against poor criminal defendants who can’t pay for their release from jail. Read more
Social media
SB 2373: Missed key deadline on May 19
This bill would have let the state’s attorney general take legal action based on consumer complaints of censorship against social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Some critics questioned whether the measure conflicted with federal law that allows social media platforms to regulate their own content. But it never made it onto the House’s calendar by a key deadline.
