Gavel to Gavel 89th Legislative Session - April 12, 2025
On Thursday, after more than 13 hours of debate, and working through over 400 amendments, the Texas House passed their version of the budget by a vote of 118 to 26. The vote sets the stage for a conference committee to be named and to work out the differences between the two versions. At the beginning of the debate, House Appropriations Chairman Greg Bonnen (R – League City) and each Article Subcommittee Chair provided a high-level overview of appropriations. Here are some highlights:
Overall spending $337B in All Funds; $154B in General Revenue
HCSSB 1 is $2.9B under the pay as you limit; $3B under the tax spending limit; and $16B under the consolidated general revenue/general revenue dedicated limit.
Chairman Bonnen compared the Texas debt service to the federal debt, pointing out that Texas conservative spending has kept debt service at 1.5% of the overall spending which is less than this current biennium. This is due to one-time, strategic investments.
$51B for property tax relief
Foundation School Program is funded at $75.6B, a $16B increase.
$40.5B towards public school finance and school safety, an $8.7B increase,.
$1.7B to fully fund projected student enrollment.
$6.4B towards Teacher Retirement System; $1.2B for TRS Care; and $450M for TRS Active Care to keep premium growth at 10%
$6.5B for Border Security.
$338M for Rural Law Enforcement Grants
$402M for 567 new State Troopers
Mental/Behavioral Health funded at $5.5B in General Revenue to support community mental health; crisis services; and costs for new state hospitals.
Infrastructure/Transportation funded at $35.8B in All Funds for highway construction, maintenance, and fully funding the Unified Transportation Program, which is the 10-year roadmap of transportation priorities.
$177M for Crime Victims under Article I
Medicaid appropriations total $80.6B in All Funds including raising the base wage for personal attendants to $14.28/hour and $17.58/hour for individuals providing attendant services for individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD).
$240M for new mental health beds at state hospitals and the community.
$72.8M for Youth Crisis Teams.
$50M for IDD Waiver programs; including opening 1,051 waiver slots.
$71.1M for Graduate Medical Education Expansion.
4440M for Parks and Wildlife for new parks, maintaining existing parks; $300M for operations of natural areas and state parks.
$43M for Game Wardens to be on par with outside law enforcement agencies.
The House also approved the supplemental budget, HB 500, appropriating $12B to cover costs from the current biennium, including expansion of the newborn screening lab for the Department of State Health Services. The Legislative Budget Board has an infographic showing the areas of spending.
On the other side of the Capitol, the Texas Senate advanced more priorities of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, including SB 32, tax relief for small businesses, SB 36, establishing a Homeland Security Division, and SB 38, creating a civil eviction process to remove squatters. Lt. Gov. Patrick, describing this as 'one of the most conservative sessions in history,' released a recapitulatory statement of March and priorities passed by the Senate on Monday, accessible here. Furthermore, SB 14, by Sen. Phil King (R – Arlington) and Rep. Gio Capriglione (R – Keller), is the first bill to make its way to the Governor’s desk. SB 14 deals with reforms of procedures by which state agencies adopt rules, impose regulatory requirements, and the interpretation of laws and rules by state agencies in certain judicial proceedings.
On Thursday, Lt. Gov. Patrick announced his campaign for reelection in 2026, vying for his fourth term in office. He was quickly endorsed by President Trump. On Tuesday, Attorney General Ken Paxton announced he will challenge U.S. Senator John Cornyn in the 2026 Republican primary. Senator Cornyn, who's held the seat for almost 23 years, has been pressured by the right flank of the Republican party for holding positions seen as too moderate, whereas AG Paxton has only grown closer ties to President Trump, whose endorsement may decide the race entirely. Senate Majority Leader John Thune endorsed Sen. Cornyn upon announcing his reelection campaign earlier in March.
On Monday, the House Public Health Committee debated HB 44 by Rep. Charlie Geren (R – Fort Worth), which addresses confusion in the medical community about when doctors can provide abortions to save a pregnant patient’s life or prevent the loss of major bodily functions. The carefully negotiated legislation has bipartisan support from anti-abortion groups, health care interests and physicians, but still received criticism by both liberal lawmakers (who don’t believe the new law goes far enough to protect women and doctors from prosecution) and conservatives (who fear the bill could provide a pathway to elective abortions). After a robust discussion, the bill was left pending in committee.
Superior Health Plan came under fire during a recent hearing by the House DOGE Committee for revealing the plan conducted via private investigators surveillance on lawmakers and its own members. In response, Chairman Capriglione sent a letter to Health and Human Services Commission Executive Commissioner Cecile Young, calling for the state to suspend Superior’s ability to sign new Medicaid patients and prohibit them from being awarded new state Medicaid contracts that are presently under re-procurement.
In an increasingly rare showing of bipartisan levity as the session marches onwards, the Texas Senate continued the tradition of playfully hazing freshman members of the legislature during the passage of their first bill. On Wednesday, lawmakers had freshman Senators Molly Cook (D-Houston) and Brent Hagenbuch (R-Denton) lay out and respond to questioning on the opposite member's bill, followed by Sen. Cook assuming the gavel to pass her own bill on the floor and both senators receiving a warm welcome across both parties.
The Texas House adjourned until 2:00 PM on Monday, and the Senate until 11:00 AM.