Good morning, 

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Brandon Waltens 

Monday, January 4, 2021
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• It’s now 2021, which means the legislative session in the state Capitol will soon be upon us.
   
• The Legislature, which meets for 140 days every two years, is scheduled to convene at noon on January 12 and gavel out on May 31 (barring any special sessions, which can be called by the governor and may last up to 30 days).
   
• But these aren’t the only important dates citizens should keep in mind. 

• Though there are some exceptions, bills must be filed within the first 60 days of session (by Friday, March 12). However, due to speed bumps placed at every step of the process, it is critical that bills be filed as quickly as possible if they want a chance at becoming law.
   
• The Texas Constitution also prohibits the House and Senate from passing legislation during the first 60 days of a regular legislative session. The main exceptions to this rule are priorities the governor deems “emergency items,” which are able to get a head start in the process. For example, Gov. Greg Abbott’s emergency items last session included property tax and school finance reform.

• Another date to remember: Thursday, May 13. When the clock strikes midnight on the 122nd day, all House bills that have not been voted forward by the House are immediately dead. 
   
• Each session, however, there is a logjam in the final week leading up to the House Bill passage deadline in which the daily House calendars get longer, and longer, and longer. The items listed on each calendar are too many to be reached in a given day, and so they spill over to the top of the next day’s calendar as unfinished business.
   
• In order to have a reasonable chance of passing, a bill typically needs to be placed on the general calendar for Monday, May 10th.

• But wait! Bills don’t just go straight to the floor for a vote. There’s a committee process, and a bill passed out of a committee in the House has the additional hurdle of being placed on a calendar by the Calendars Committee.
   

• April 29 is a date that activists should burn into their minds. A House Bill needs to be passed out of its House committee by that date if its supporters want any reasonable shot at passing it. That means that the committee hearing on the bill needs to be scheduled by at least mid-April if it is going to stay on track.
   

• But what about the Senate? The Senate is a much more flexible body and has imposed far fewer deadlines on itself. The House, however, sets a deadline on itself for voting on Senate Bills. That deadline is the 134th day of session, Tuesday, May 25th.
   

• Senate Bills ideally need to be in the House and moving through the committee process by the early part of May. Those bills that are sent over in the last two weeks rarely make it through the process in time for passage.

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