Last Week in the Legislature
Ready, Set, Go ... Now Slow Down
By Kenneth Besserman
Director of Government Affairs and Special Counsel
January 17, 2025 | Issue 2
AUSTIN - The 89th Regular Session of the Texas Legislature began on January 14, 2025. The biannual event – 140 days every two years – commences with a lot of uncertainty, a large budget surplus, significant partisan bickering and the looming issue of school choice (aka vouchers, educational savings accounts) that will permeate everything during the session. The old adage “the session meets for 140 days every two years but should meet for two days every 140 years” may be truer than ever this session.
On Tuesday, the Session convened with three new members of the Texas Senate and 31 new members of the Texas House. While the total number of freshmen legislators is not a record, it is one of the highest turnovers outside of a legislative redistricting year. The Texas House will be a different place in 2025, most notably because there is a new Speaker of the House.
On the second ballot, Representative Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) beat Representative David Cook (R-Mansfield) to become Speaker of the House. The election of Speaker Burrows extends a long-time tradition in the House of electing Speaker from less populous regions of the state. The election for Speaker has been on the top of the mind of legislators, lobbyists and political insiders for some months since the November general election. The candidacy of Burrows and Cook brought forward an intense division of opinion, different governing styles and legislative priorities between the different wings of the Republican party. Speaker Burrows’ election seemingly continues to uphold some of the longstanding traditions and inner workings of the Texas House that many of the supporters of Rep. Cook support, including most notably the eliminating of members of the minority party from chairing committees. In the coming days and weeks, as the House debates House rules and committee chairs and committee membership gets appointed, we will see what shakes out in terms of leadership position, committee chairmanships and legislative priorities.
In the Texas Senate, while three new Senators have now joined, Senate operations and committees will likely not be too different from recent sessions. Traditionally, the Senate jumps out ahead and starts committee hearings earlier than the House, so many bills will get out of committee in February and early March. Both chambers are constitutionally prohibited from passing legislation in the first 60 days of session (March 14) unless an item has been declared an emergency by the Governor. In the coming weeks, the Governor may put a few items on the emergency calendar which will allow, but not mandate, early passage of legislation. As is usually the case, most emergency items tend to require some compromise or negotiation between the chambers thereby putting passage of those items later into the session.
The 89th Session begins with some very weighty issues on the agenda. First, the legislature will have a $24+ billion surplus to begin the budget process. While federal funds from the pandemic years has largely ended, Texas tax collection (sales tax and oil/gas severance taxes) continues to boom. Additionally, there is a few billion dollars left unspent from last session when school finance and teacher pay raises were not funded. Big decisions must be made on how to spend the surplus, as big-ticket items such as water resources, energy infrastructure, transportation, school finance, and school choice will take up much of the time of budget negotiators.
If you want to learn more about the state budget and the Texas economy, make sure you register and attend the 2025 TXCPA Advocacy Day, where you will hear from Comptroller Glenn Hegar. Make sure that you register here.
The next couple of weeks will be the traditional slow start of the legislature. The House and Senate will take a few days off before reconvening late next week. The House is expected to begin debate over the House rules next week, which should be a very interesting debate over committee chairs, how the House will operate and which members will become leaders alongside Speaker Burrows.
Only 135 days to go until Sine Die!