Thousands of Texas House bills ‘die’ at key midnight deadline

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — At 12 a.m. Friday, thousands of bills in the Texas House of Representatives will meet their end.

Before the deadline, the House passed 1,060 bills, with each passing three rounds of voting. House representatives filed 5,852 bills this session, which puts the House’s “death toll” at around 81.8% of its bills.

Some of the bills that died at midnight include:

• HB 1375, which would have prohibited books with certain content
• HB 3817, which would have created a criminal offense targeting transgender people
• HB 5151, which would have increased air quality permitting requirements for rock crushing plants

HB 5151 also helped kill other bills on the calendar. During the final eight hours leading up to the bill deadline, the legislature spent an hour discussing whether the bill sent out of committee was substantially different from the original. Ultimately, the bill was killed on a point of order.

KXAN reported on several House bills that have already passed in the chamber this session, including ones to legalize fentanyl test strips, end STAAR testing, ban minors from social media, and create education savings accounts.

What’s next for the House, Senate

The next critical deadline during the 89th Legislative Session is May 24, the last day that the House can advance Senate bills out of its committees.

The Senate has sent 979 bills to the House as of Friday morning. House committees have already submitted reports to the Calendar committee for 406 of those bills, sending them to the House floor for consideration.

So far, state legislators have sent only 202 bills to the governor, just 2.2% of the 8,958 bills filed this session.

KXAN reported in 2023 that the 88th Legislative Session sent 1,246 bills to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. He signed 1,038 of those bills outright. Abbott vetoed 76 bills in 2023, which set a new personal record across the governor’s four prior legislative sessions while in office.

The legislative session ends June 2.