Texas lawmakers unveil bills they plan to file in the 2023 legislative session

AUSTIN — Texas lawmakers on Monday unveiled hundreds of bills they hope to pass in next year’s legislative session, some of which tackle hot-button issues such as election fraud, border security, transgender youth and assisting Texans with unwanted pregnancies, now that abortion is essentially outlawed in the state.

Monday was the first day legislators could “pre-file” their legislation. The deluge of hundreds of bills was not more than a fraction of bills that will be filed in the Legislature’s 88th session that starts Jan. 10.

With some exceptions, the early filers are often some of the Legislature’s most staunchly conservative Republicans or out-of-power Democrats. In last week’s midterm elections, Republicans increased their majorities by a net gain of one seat in each chamber:

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican who won a third term as the Senate’s presiding officer, reserved the first 30 bill numbers and five Senate joint resolution numbers for his and the Senate GOP Caucus’ top priorities. Usually, Patrick doesn’t divulge details until after the first few weeks of the session.

Similarly, Speaker Dade Phelan, a Beaumont Republican, held back the lowest 20 bill numbers and lowest three House joint resolution numbers for his chamber’s top priority measures.

By the numbers

150: Total number of legislators in the House, with 86 Republicans and 64 Democrats

31: Total number of legislators in the Senate, with 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats

634: House bills filed as of 4 p.m. Monday

44: House constitutional amendments filed as of 4 p.m.

181: Senate bills filed as of 4 p.m.

16: Senate constitutional amendments filed as of 4 p.m.

6,927: Bills filed in last year’s regular session

1,073: Bills sent to Gov. Greg Abbott in 2021, according to the Legislative Research Library

589: Bills Abbott signed into law last year

34: Bills that became law without his signature

21: Bills Abbott vetoed

9%: Percentage of bills that jumped through the 140-day session’s many hoops, avoided pitfalls and became law

Bills unveiled Monday

Frisco GOP Rep. Jared Patterson, just elected to a third term, calls himself in his official webpage’s biography “a full-spectrum conservative.”

Patterson wasted no time getting out of the gate.

One of his prefiled bills, House Bill 90, would give members of the Texas military forces who are on “state active duty,” such as participating in Abbott’s Operation Lone Star at the Texas-Mexico border, coverage of post-traumatic stress disorder and other benefits in worker’s compensation.

The measure also would give National Guard soldiers’ survivors the same $500,000 lump-sum death benefit now afforded to families of fallen law enforcement officers.

Sen. Joan Huffman of Houston, chairwoman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, filed a companion bill Monday called the Bishop Evans Act, she said in a news release, after a National Guard solider from Arlington who died trying to save two migrants from drowning in the Rio Grande.

Election security

Revisiting last year’s “election security” law — which Republicans said was needed but Democrats and civil rights groups said would suppress racial minorities’ votes — Jacksboro GOP Rep. David Spiller introduced HB 52.

At issue is the criminal-offense category for illegal voting, which some conservatives had supported reducing because penalties for other election violations were increased in last year’s omnibus elections bill. The offense of illegal voting was lowered from a second-degree felony to a Class A misdemeanor. Despite opposition from former President Donald Trump, Phelan refused to restore the felony penalty in last year’s third special session.

Spiller’s bill would restore the maximum punishment for illegal voting, such as impersonating someone or marking their ballot against their wishes, to 20 years, with a minimum of two years’ confinement. Under the elections bill that took effect last December, it’s up to one year.

Gambling

Voters could choose whether to legalize casinos and sports betting under SJR 17, a constitutional amendment proposed by Houston Democratic Sen. Carol Alvarado.

Abbott and Patrick, who’ve been reluctant in the past to defy religious conservatives opposed to expanded gambling, are under intense pressure to consider jobs and new tax revenue that a liberalization of Texas’ strict wagering laws could produce.

Under Alvarado’s proposal, the Legislature could decide on whether to legalize sports betting and a newly created Texas Gaming Commission could issue casino licenses for up to four fancy “destination resorts,” with minimum investments of $2 billion in the Dallas and Houston regions; plus smaller-scale casinos at existing horse and dog racetracks and Indian gaming facilities.

Abortion debate likely

Abortion is expected to take center stage in the upcoming session, after the state enacted a near total ban on the procedure triggered by the fall of Roe vs. Wade.

There’s no exemption for victims of rape or incest, though some Republicans in contested midterm elections said they would support adding those in. It remains to be seen whether any will file such a bill.

Some Democrats have said the law’s only exemption — to save the life of the pregnant person — needs to be better defined because some doctors reportedly delayed ending dangerous pregnancies for fear of being sued or facing prison time.

A slate of eight Senate Democrats filed SB 123, which adds several medical related exceptions, as well as SB 122 creating exemptions for rape and incest.

A few Republicans have floated ideas to further stiffen the law, by penalizing companies that pay to cover their employees’ abortions in states where the procedure remains legal.

Bills to provide financial assistance to Texans with unwanted pregnancies are expected. One prefiled on Monday was Patterson’s HB 532, to retroactively provide child support to the time of conception in cases in which paternity has been proven.

Medicaid expansion

Debate over the state’s Medicaid program, safety net health insurance that primarily covers children, will also likely come up. Democrats have been pushing unsuccessfully for years to expand the program to cover low-income adults in a state with the highest uninsured rate in the country.

But Republicans in control of the Legislature have had little appetite for the change, which is largely financed by the federal government. Lawmakers are already discussing another initiative to extend Medicaid for new mothers from six months post childbirth to a full year. The change is a top recommendation by a state-sanctioned committee that studies how to prevent maternal deaths.

Democratic senators filed numerous bills and proposed constitutional amendments related to expanding Medicaid.

Uvalde

In response to the May 24 Uvalde school shooting, several Democrats including San Antonio Democrat Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, filed bills that would raise the age of purchase of assault-style long guns to 21. An 18-year-old boy allegedly used such a weapon to kill 19 students and two teachers and injure 17 others.

Gutierrez also filed legislation that would create a $300 million fund for victims of the shooting and their families.

School vouchers

At least one bill would allow parents to use public funds to pay for private school or other approved educational expenses.

LGBTQ community

Some lawmakers on the more conservative end of the Texas GOP have pledged to crack down on LGBT, and especially transgender, rights this year. While he has not said whether it will be among his priority bills, which have yet to be filed, Patrick has promised to mirror Florida’s efforts to ban the discussion of gender and sexual orientation in elementary school classrooms.

In the House, members of the staunchly conservative Freedom Caucus on Monday filed bills to expand restrictions on transgender athletes to the collegiate level and to prohibit minors receiving gender-affirming care like puberty blockers or hormone therapy. Drag queen shows are also expected to be a target.

Two-year budget

The only bill lawmakers have to pass is a two-year budget. Usually, GOP leaders introduce a “base” or starting-point bill a few weeks into the session. In July, Comptroller Glenn Hegar said he expects the state’s robust economy, higher prices for oil and natural gas, and inflation to help swell the general revenue ending balance for the current cycle to $27 billion. That doesn’t include a cushion of about $13.7 billion Hegar foresees in the state’s “rainy day fund,” which mostly is fueled by oil and gas severance tax receipts.

Abbott, Patrick and many GOP lawmakers have said they want to apply a large portion of the surplus toward a renewed effort to buy down local school property taxes. Democrats are questioning that approach, saying shrewd investments in improving infrastructure and workforce training could help the state economy grow even faster.

An influential GOP senator, Health and Human Services Committee Chairwoman Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham, filed Senate Joint Resolution 18, which would let Texans vote on whether to let the Legislature lower the cap on appraisal increases for homeowners, currently in the Texas Constitution at a maximum of 10% a year. Kolkhorst’s Senate Bill 152 would lower the limit to 5% annually.