Lawmakers have left Austin after spending almost 10 months at the Capitol. The 87th Texas Legislature spent 140 days in its once-every-two-years regular session, plus three special sessions called by Gov. Greg Abbott. Here’s a look at some of the legislation that passed and has — or will — become law.

Regular session, Jan. 12-May 31

Of nearly 10,000 bills and resolutions filed during the regular session, about 3,800 were passed. Abbott vetoed 21 pieces of legislation. In each of the last two regular sessions, he vetoed about 50. The session effectively ended when Democrats walked out the Saturday night before adjournment to thwart passage of a controversial elections overhaul bill.

Abortion ban

Senate Bill 8, also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act, bans abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, before many women even know they are pregnant, with no exceptions for rape or incest. The ban would not be enforced by the state but allows any Texas resident to sue abortion providers or anyone else believed to have assisted in enabling an abortion. Civil penalties up to $10,000 would apply. A U.S. Justice Department challenge to the law, which took effect Sept. 1, will be heard Nov. 1 by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Electricity

Only two major bills meant to overhaul the state’s energy grid were passed to prevent a repeat of problems from February’s winter storm. The sweeping reform bill, Senate Bill 3, emphasized requiring weatherization for power infrastructure to make it through cold winters without failing and improving the grid’s emergency communication system. The other major legislation recasts the board of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Additionally, a series of bills passed that would help pay debts accrued during the winter storm — and, in theory, protect ratepayers from large immediate increases in their electric charges.

Critical race theory

House Bill 3979 was Texas’ first attempt to ban so-called critical race theory from public school classrooms, a move that brought it in line with other conservative states whose leaders have conflated the theory with a wide range of diversity and inclusion efforts. The bill — which education advocates argue is intentionally vague and will have a chilling effect on classrooms — says social studies teachers can’t be compelled to discuss “widely debated and currently controversial issues of public policy or social affairs.” If they do so, they can’t give deference to one perspective. The bill also limits how certain ideas related to race and racism can be discussed and that teachers can’t require students to learn about The New York Times’ 1619 Project, which focuses on the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans.

Permitless carry

House Bill 1927 allows Texans 21 and over to carry handguns — openly or concealed — without obtaining a state-issued license as long as they aren’t prohibited from having a weapon under another state or federal law.

National anthem

This bill requires any professional sports teams with contracts with the state government to play the national anthem before the start of a game.

Medical marijuana

Legislators expanded the Texas Compassionate Use Program to allow Texans with cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder to join the medical marijuana program. It also upped the capped amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient of marijuana, to 1%. It was previously set at 0.5%.

College athlete compensation

This legislation allows college athletes to profit off their name and likeness. Senate Bill 1385 makes Texas the 17th state to allow this kind of compensation.

State budget

The only must-pass legislation, according to the Texas Constitution, is the state budget. Lawmakers sent a two-year, roughly $248 billion state budget to Abbott.

First special session, July 8-Aug. 6

No bills were passed due to House Democrats’ quorum break.

Second special session, Aug. 7-Sept. 2

Democrats continued their walkout into the second special session, but enough returned midway through to allow a quorum of two-thirds of members to pass an elections bill and several other items on Abbott’s agenda.

Elections

The sweeping bill that led to three quorum breaks by House Democrats bans drive-through and 24-hour voting, extends some early voting hours in smaller counties and gives more power to partisan poll watchers and new powers to the Texas Secretary of State to determine procedure and conduct audits.

Bail changes

Some criminal defendants will have to pay cash to get out of jail as a result of Senate Bill 6. Personal bond cannot be granted if a suspect is charged with a violent crime or if a suspect is charged while out on bail. The bill also creates a searchable public safety report system to keep track of defendants, their criminal history and any bail set.

Abortion medication

Senate Bill 4 further limited access to abortion-inducing pills, prohibiting doctors from prescribing them for women who are more than seven weeks pregnant.

More anti-critical race theory

Senate Bill 3 built on earlier legislation targeting critical race theory. It expands the prohibition on teaching certain concepts about race, creates a civics training program for teachers and largely bars educators from giving credit to students who do advocacy work. It tweaks language to say that an educator who brings up a controversial subject in class must “explore that topic objectively and in a manner free from political bias.”

Border security

House Bill 9 added another $1.88 billion to help beef up security efforts along the border, including building a wall. They’d already appropriated $1.05 billion in the regular session.

Social media censorship

House Bill 20 banned social media sites from censoring political views and requires those sites to create a complaint system.

Christine Blubaugh Act

Lawmakers passed a bill to prevent dating and family violence named after Christine Blubaugh, a Grand Prairie teenager who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 2000. Abbott vetoed a similar measure that passed with bipartisan support during the regular session, asking lawmakers this time for a proposal that “recognizes the right of parents to opt their children out of the instruction.”

Big appropriations

Legislators appropriated $701 million for a one-time supplemental pension payment to retired teachers, more than $313 million to restore the Legislature’s funding that Abbott vetoed after the regular session over the Democratic walkout and $90 million in grants for hard-pressed foster care providers.

Third special session, Sept. 20-Oct. 19

A special session in the fall had been planned to deal with redistricting to draw lines for legislative and congressional districts for the next 10 years. Abbott added a few more items to the agenda and is expected to soon sign all the bills passed during this session.

Redistricting

Lawmakers enacted, along party lines, new boundaries for congressional, legislative and State Board of Education districts. The new maps — drawn every 10 years after U.S. Census results — would keep Republicans in power for the foreseeable future if the maps survive court challenges. Democrats complained that Republicans drew districts to favor white and conservative voters while limiting the voting power of Hispanics and other minority groups — which accounted for 95% of the state’s growth in the decade. Lawsuits already have been filed to challenge the maps.

Property taxes

Lawmakers voted for a constitutional amendment to go before voters next May that would increase the homestead exemption for school taxes to $40,000, up from $25,000. It would save the owner of a $300,000 home about $176 a year in property taxes.

Federal COVID-19 funding

Legislators approved a plan to distribute $13.3 billion in funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. The money will go to bolster the state’s unemployment system, to hospitals to help hire more nurses and new hospitals and mental health services, including a new psychiatric hospital in Dallas. About $3 billion was saved for future tax relief.

Transgender athletes

Athletes in public schools must play on sports teams that correspond with the sex listed on their birth certificate under a bill passed at the end of the special session. Democrats had blocked the bill in the regular and second special sessions, but could not block it a third time. Opponents say the bill will lead to targeting of transgender students, who are already at risk for suicide. Abbott says the bill protects “the integrity of Texas high school sports.”

Dog tethering

Senate Bill 5 would clarify existing state law regarding the safety of dogs chained outside and make the statute easier to enforce after Abbott vetoed similar legislation in June.

Austin correspondents Morgan O’Hanlon and Sami Sparber, Education Lab reporter Talia Richman and politics editor Mede Nix contributed to this report.