The 89th Regular Session of the Texas Legislature will convene at noon tomorrow, Tuesday, January 14th. During this time, 31 senators and 150 representatives will simultaneously be sworn into office. The 89th Legislature welcomes 3 new senators and 32 new representatives. Lawmakers in both chambers are expected to meet later in the week to consider and adopt rules that will govern the processes of each body for the biennium.
Meanwhile, the House will be busy with its first order of business following the swearing-in of its members: the election of the Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. With current Speaker of the House, Dade Phelan, dropping from the race last month, all eyes will be on the House to see who takes the gavel. Current candidates include David Cook (R-Mansfield), Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock), and Ana-Maria Ramos (D-Dallas).
Prior to the legislature convening, State Comptroller Glenn Hegar will release an updated Biennial Revenue Estimate (BRE) to the 89th Texas Legislature later today, Monday, January 13th. The BRE report to lawmakers will provide details on the amount of revenue available to spend for the 2025-2026 state budget. Hegar is expected to announce a budget surplus of more than $20 billion.
Prefiling commenced November 12th with record-setting numbers. House and Senate members filed more than 1,500 bills on the first day of prefiling. By the end of last week, House members pre-filed 1,806 bills while Senate members pre-filed 746 bills, for a total of 2,552—up from 1,505 at the same point in the last legislative session in 2023. The filing of most legislation will continue through Friday, March 14th, which also represents the 60th day of the legislative session. The first 150 bills in the House and the first 40 bills in the Senate have been reserved by leadership and typically will represent their priorities. The general appropriations bill will be HB 1 and SB 1. However, the budget bill ultimately passed by lawmakers will be SB 1 following the tradition of alternating the budget bill number between the House and Senate. NTC will monitor and track all legislation that aligns with our regional priorities throughout the legislative session.
