A LOOK INTO THE LEGISLATURE
Published November 26, 2024 by Julia Stanford
The countdown to the 89th Texas Legislature is underway! Lawmakers will convene in Austin on January 14, 2025, to begin a 140-day sprint to approve the state budget and enact legislation that will affect the lives of millions of Texans. Among the many issues addressed each session, water remains an important and increasingly prominent topic, with growing demand and limited supply capturing significant attention. This policy work is closely monitored by the Texas Alliance of Groundwater Districts (TAGD), as well as groundwater conservation district (GCD) staff and board members, water professionals, and stakeholders statewide. This article provides an overview of the legislative process and insights into what happens in that iconic pink granite building.
Session Statistics
(as of 11/26/24)
1,919 bills filed
3 new senators
32 new representatives
Note: While the Texas Constitution establishes general legislative requirements and procedures, each chamber and committee adopts specific rules at the beginning of each session to dictate their procedures. This article provides a general overview of Texas’ legislative process under ordinary circumstances.
TAGD tracks bills affecting Chapter 36 of the Texas Water Code and generally considers these actionable groundwater bills, subject to review by the TAGD Legislative Committee. TAGD also watches general water-related legislation and government bills that may impact GCDs or the agencies they work with, as well as local bills creating or modifying powers of a specific GCD. Water-related bills in the Senate are typically assigned to the Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs Committee, and similar bills in the House are most often referred to the Natural Resources Committee. Be sure to say hello to TAGD’s Executive Director, Adam Foster, or Vice President Doug Shaw if you see them at a committee hearing or around the Capitol during the session, as they share information about GCDs!
A Bill is Born
The bill filing period begins the Monday after the November general election preceding the session and ends 60 days after the Legislature convenes. For the regular session of the 89th Texas Legislature, that window opened on November 12, 2024, and will close on March 14, 2025. After this deadline, legislators may only file bills related to emergency appropriations, emergency issues designated by the governor, and local bills, unless a measure receives a vote of at least four-fifths of the membership of the chamber to allow it to be filed late. For purposes of this article, we’ll take a look at how a regular bill becomes law, meaning those bills which do not pertain to local issues (such as GCD-specific bills) or emergency matters.
State senators and state representatives work with the attorneys and staff of the Texas Legislative Council, which is a nonpartisan legislative support agency, to draft bills. While only legislators can officially file bills, they often get their ideas – and even draft legislation – from constituents, stakeholders, special interest groups, lobbyists, or other advocates. A legislator introduces a bill in their respective chamber, referred to as the originating chamber. Sometimes senators and representatives will file identical “companion bills” in their respective chambers to increase the chances of passage. Once a bill has been introduced and its caption read aloud by the reading clerk, the presiding officer of that chamber (the Speaker of the House or Lieutenant Governor) assigns the bill to a committee for further consideration.
Committees and Hearings
The committee hearing process is where much of the careful deliberation and hard work takes place, and offers the most opportunity for public input. However, this is also where the bill can be modified in ways large and small that may change the final impact, or even kill it entirely. Committee chairs select bills for consideration and post hearing notices in accordance with chamber rules. While other types of committee meetings exist—such as formal meetings and work sessions—no bill can become law without going through the committee process and receiving a public hearing.
At a public hearing, the committee chair will typically ask a bill’s author or sponsor to lay out the bill for the committee to consider. Committee members can offer amendments to bills or offer a committee substitute. Committee substitutes are more common, as they are collaborative solutions that can be an alternative to adopting several individual amendments. If accepted by the committee, a committee substitute will move forward instead of the original bill. After the committee hears a bill, they may vote it out of committee the same day, or leave it pending with no vote taken that day. This pending status is frequently where a bill meets its end, as most bills are never voted out of committee. However, many committee chairs leave all bills pending after public hearing and until the next meeting of the committee as a matter of routine practice, and that time can also be used to give the bill author time to secure the votes needed or work on a committee substitute to address any questions or concerns that have been raised.
Now, Where Does the Public Come In?
Anyone can participate in a committee hearing in a few easy steps. Registering your stance on a bill with a witness card is known as “dropping a card” and is now usually completed digitally, either at kiosks outside the hearing rooms or through an online portal accessible only via the Capitol’s free onsite wi-fi network. The witness registration form will ask for your name, who you represent, your position on the bill, and whether you would like to provide testimony. You can testify for, against, or neutrally “on” the bill, which means that you are neither opposed or in support of it but would like to share thoughts on it. The committee chair will call you up to provide your comments verbally, and a clerk will take any handouts. Public comment may be limited at the committee chair’s discretion but typically witnesses are allowed two to three minutes each. After each witness testifies, the chair or committee members may ask questions. While public comments are the official way of making your voice heard, individuals are encouraged to contact legislators’ offices prior to the hearings to share any concerns on a particular bill.
To the Floor, Switching Chambers, and Beyond…
When a bill is reported favorably out of committee, the chair issues a committee report that includes the bill text as recommended by the committee, a record of the vote, a detailed bill analysis, and any applicable fiscal notes or impact statements.
House bills will then be referred to the either the Committee on Calendars, which has the responsibility to determine what bills should be heard for full debate and a vote on the House floor, or the Committee on Local and Consent Calendars, which may set a bill for consideration and vote by the full House on the Local Calendar only if it is a local bill or a bill with no active opposition. The process in the Senate is different, involving a special “blocker bill” and a few suspensions of the Senate Rules to modify the process laid out by the Texas Constitution, but the important takeaway is that the lieutenant governor and 5/9 of senators (18 members) must agree to hear a bill before it can be considered by the full Senate under the current rules. If a majority of legislators in one chamber vote in favor on each of two separate readings, the bill is then “engrossed” with any amendments and proofreading corrections incorporated, and then sent on to the opposite chamber.
Legislators collaborate outside of the Capitol too! This photo from the 2023 Texas Groundwater Summit shows a conversation between Sen. Eckhardt, Sen. Perry, Rep. King, and Rep. Harris.
To progress through the other legislative chamber, the bill must be sponsored by a member of that chamber, referred to a committee, reported favorably after a public committee hearing or formal meeting, and be heard on the other chamber’s floor. After receiving a majority of votes in the second chamber on each of two separate readings, the bill is referred back to the originating chamber where it is “enrolled” in its final version to be signed by the presiding officers of both houses. Any differences between the two passed versions can be accepted by the originating chamber or may be reconciled in a conference committee before being enrolled.
An enrolled bill is then sent to the Governor of Texas, who has three options when presented with a bill – the governor can sign it, veto it, or allow it to become law without a signature. A bill must be signed or vetoed within 10 days of receipt or it will be deemed approved by operation of law, with a 10-day extension for bills sent to the governor close to adjournment. That final deadline for action on the last bills engrossed for the 89th Regular Session will fall on June 22, 2025. If the governor does not timely veto a bill, it becomes law on its effective date, or on the 91st day after adjournment if no date is specified.
Only a fraction of filed bills will cross the finish line to become law. There are numerous pinch points for a bill to be stalled or killed entirely, even when a policy change has been years in the making, inside and outside the walls of the Texas Capitol. While the journey is long and arduous, it serves as a powerful reminder of the checks and balances present in the Texas Legislature and the extraordinary support that all state laws must have had at the time of their passage. The regular session of the 89th Texas Legislature that begins in January will conclude on June 2, 2025, when lawmakers adjourn sine die (a Latin term that translates to “without day”). Before, during, and after the session, TAGD will continue to keep its members informed on the latest updates in groundwater policy and legislation that affects GCDs and groundwater management.
Author note: Thanks to Brian Sledge of SledgeLaw Group and Ty Embrey of Lloyd Gosselink Rochelle & Townsend for reviewing the accuracy of this article.