Gavel to Gavel 89th Legislative Session - April 25, 2025
With less than 40 days left in the legislative session, Gov. Greg Abbott has signed the first bill passed by the legislature into law. At a ceremony on Wednesday alongside Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows, the Governor signed into law, SB 14 by Sen. Phil King (R-Weatherford), establishing a Texas Department of Government Efficiency agency. The 18-employee agency will be tasked with advising Texas departments on unnecessary rules and regulations that can be cut to make Texas government "more efficient and less costly," in the words of Gov. Abbott.
Education savings accounts, the public policy issue that has defined the 89th Legislative Session, is now also headed to the desk of Gov. Abbott. After the House passed SB 2 as amended, by Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe) and sponsored by Rep. Brad Buckley (R-Salado), last week, the Senate voted 19-12 on Thursday to concur with House changes, per Lt. Gov. Patrick's direction.
Prior to the House floor vote last Thursday, Democrat lawmakers vowed to vote down all proposed constitutional amendments for the remainder of the session if school vouchers were not taken to a statewide vote. Constitutional amendments, proposed through joint resolutions, require a 2/3rds majority, or 100 members, to pass the House and be taken to Texas voters. While the 62 House Democrats won't be able to block most bills (which require only 76 votes to pass), they have begun acting on their word. This Thursday, more than 50 Democrat Representatives effectively voted to postpone a constitutional amendment providing property tax relief for certain residences of disabled individuals proposed by Rep. Candy Noble (R-Murphy). The coordinated resistance, dubbed "Operation White Light" for the voting lights within the House chamber that glow white when members vote “present-not-voting,” is already experiencing intense Republican backlash.
On Friday, in response to Operation White Light, another routine passage of resolutions and bills on the House Local and Consent Calendar was torpedoed by a group of 15 GOP lawmakers, with Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R-Arlington) stating House leadership must fast-track Republican legislation to the floor immediately. For the second consecutive week, bills placed on the Local and Consent Calendar were sent back to the House Calendars Committee, and must get in line with other bills for consideration by the full House.
The coming weeks will demonstrate if Democrats hold strong in the blockade, delaying anticipated amendments and risking a special session, or if some vestige of ever-fleeting bipartisanship will prevail.
Lt. Gov. Patrick's Senate, isolated from the political games of the House, kept pace on approving leagues of Senate bills this week. Priorities of the Lt. Gov. now headed to the House are SB 23, providing property tax relief to residences of disabled Texans (contingent on constitutional amendment), and SB 39, limiting permissible evidence in commercial trucking collision cases. SB 31, clarifying state abortion law to permit certain life-saving abortions, was unanimously voted to the Local and Uncontested Calendar from committee and will be heard on the floor on Monday. Lt. Gov. Patrick also announced on Thursday that he had been endorsed by all 20 Republican Senators for his reelection campaign.
On Monday, the Executive Director of the Texas Lottery Commission resigned amidst intense scrutiny from state leadership over the commission's handling of courier services to permit the purchase of tickets online. His resignation came days before a lawsuit filed by a lottery courier service, alleging they were advised by the Commission that it had no regulatory oversight capabilities over their services before they were abruptly banned earlier this year. The Texas Legislature is currently considering legislation that enacts a ban and other regulations on the commission in statute, and Attorney General Ken Paxton is leading an active investigation into “suspicious and potentially illegal” lottery winnings.
The House and Senate stand adjourned until 11:00 AM on Monday.