Gavel to Gavel 89th Legislative Session - March 21, 2025
The Texas Senate continued to pass priority legislation of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, this week.
On Wednesday night, Senators passed SB 3, effectively enacting a ban on non-medical THC products in the state, by a 24-7 vote. The bill now heads to the House, where HB 28 was filed, a similar bill that places regulations on THC producers and products but is not a complete ban on hemp derivatives. Senator Charles Perry and Lt. Governor Patrick held a joint press conference on the passage of SB 3. You can watch the press conference here.
The Senate also passed SB 19, banning taxpayer-funded lobbying by government entities, on Wednesday. After a lengthy debate with SB 19 author, Senator Mayes Middleton, Senator Robert Nichols successfully amended the bill to exclude full-time local government employees from lobbying to represent their respective employees' associations. The bill passed on a party-line vote.
SB 12, banning “DEI” initiatives in public schools and providing parents with various transparency and records access rights, SB 13, establishing standards for review and prohibiting acquisition of inappropriate materials for children by public libraries, and SB 18, banning drag performances in libraries, all passed on Wednesday as well.
Additionally, the Senate passed SB 10, mandating the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public classroom, and SB 11, permitting school districts to create designated times for prayer during the school day, with several Democrats joining Republicans on the latter. The bills now head to the House, where a similar Ten Commandments measure died last session.
SB 15, rolling back several municipal regulations on residential density and properties, passed after two floor amendments were tacked on to the bill raising the minimum population from 90,000 to cities with 150,000 or more residents and excluding areas of the Edwards Aquifer recharge zones.
SB 17, banning land ownership by unnaturalized foreign-born individuals and entities from countries designated as hostile, passed after a short language change that describes those from hostile countries as 'owning a domicile' instead of 'citizen'.
A final priority of the Lt. Governor passed was SB 6, modifying electric grid and transmission policies to assign new costs for load growth and remove “phantom loads” from the ERCOT interconnection queue. Additionally, the various workgroups of the Senate Committee on Finance have arrived at their respective final decisions, and SB 1, the Senate appropriations bill to fund state government for the next biennium, will be on the Senate floor Tuesday.
The House and Senate stand adjourned until 2:00 PM on Monday.