Hundreds of Texas House bills set to die at midnight

Yahoo

28-05-2025

The Brief
Hundreds of Texas House bills are set to die Tuesday at midnight
One bill on the chopping block was SB 646, which was saved by a recount
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, State Rep. Gene Wu spoke on the deadline and session overall
AUSTIN, Texas - Texas House members had 21 pages of bills and resolutions to work through before a critical Tuesday midnight deadline.
What we know
Among the items on the chopping block was Senate Bill 646.
The legislation, filed by state Rep. Aicha Davis (D-DeSoto), would create a school loan program for school counselors.
During the debate, state Rep. Donna Howard (D-Austin) noted that the bill faced pushback by Republicans.
"Representative Davis, I understand that there are some in this body who are just simply opposed to repayment of loans no matter what. It has nothing to do with your bill," said Howard.
The loan bill was initially voted down, but a few minutes later was saved by a recount.
What they're saying
The Tuesday debates brought Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to the House floor.
He spent several minutes talking with Republicans and later spoke to FOX 7 Austin. Patrick indicated his threat of forcing a Special Session may no longer be needed.
"This will be the most productive session. Will there always be some bill that didn't make it? Of course. But school choice alone would be a session. The public financing for public education and how we're redoing that and focusing on teachers and students really for the first time. That would be a Session bill. All of these, all of these big issues alone would be a session if you just passed one of them and we're passing all of them," he said.
Some political hard ball has also been played in the final days of the session within the ranks of the Texas GOP. When asked about that, Lt. Gov. Patrick downplayed the decision to twist some arms.
"You know, there's been less arm twisting this session than ever. Better communication than ever, the relationship between the Speaker's office and the Lieutenant Governor's office is lightyears where it's been the last four years where there was no communication, quite frankly. The relationship between the Senators and the House members, Republican and Democrats, better than it's ever been," said Patrick.
What they're saying
The Lt Governor did have a few losses in the House this session and a split decision on one of his priority issues.
Several bail reform bills did pass, but a bail ban for undocumented immigrants in SB 552, and SJR 87, a bail ban for violent repeat offenders, were both blocked by Democrats.
State Rep. Gene Wu (D-Houston), the Chairman of the House Democrat Caucus spoke to FOX 7 Austin about their strategy for hot button issues.
"We're fighting hard on some really tough bills. This is when they put the very, very worst things on the calendar. So, Democrats are going to fight like hell to protect Texans," said Wu.
In an effort to save time, and to move up non-controversial legislation, Republicans postponed votes on several bills. The items were identified as possible targets for long debates and put into legislative time out. State Rep. Wu made no apologies for forcing that move.
"This is the process and eventually what ultimately kills bills here is not us, it's time. And the people who are in charge here, the Republicans who are in charge of this place, have run this place with an iron fist, they had the option of putting big bills that will generate a lot of arguments, a lot of fights or do bills that everyone agrees on. Well, they choose to do the controversial stuff. And we can't, we don't have any control of that," said Wu.
What's next
Another big deadline comes Wednesday in the Senate.
Conference Committee negotiations are still underway on several big priority bills and the Lt. Governor said he expects work will continue Monday.
That means no early Sini Die before next Tuesday.
The Source
Information in this report comes from reporting/interviews by FOX 7 Austin's chief political reporter Rudy Koski.