AUSTIN, Texas — On Thursday, Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick released the full list of his priorities for this year’s legislative session.
The 89th Legislature’s regular session began on Jan. 14, and since then, thousands of bills have been filed. Patrick presides over the Texas Senate and has a lot of power over deciding what gets considered.
At the end of January, Patrick released a list of his top 25 legislative priorities , and he promised to have 40 priority bills this session.
So far, 10 of Patrick’s priority bills have been passed in the Texas Senate and sent to the House for consideration.
- Senate Bill 2 – Providing School Choice
- Senate Bill 4 – Increasing the Homestead Exemption to $140,000 ($150,000 for Seniors)
- Senate Bill 5 – Combatting Dementia and Alzheimer’s
- Senate Bill 9 – Reforming Bail
- Senate Bill 20 – Stopping AI-Generated Child Pornography
- Senate Bill 21 – Establishing the Texas Bitcoin Reserve
- Senate Bill 25 – Making Texas Healthy Again
- Senate Bill 26 – Increasing Teacher Pay
- Senate Bill 28 – Banning Lottery Couriers
- Senate Bill 40 – Bail Reform
The last three of the bills on that list–SB 26, 28 and 40–hadn’t been announced as priorities until Thursday.
Here is the full list of Patrick’s second round of priority bills:
- Senate Bill 26 – Increasing Teacher Pay
- Senate Bill 27 – Establishing a Teacher Bill of Rights
- Senate Bill 28 – Banning Lottery Couriers
- Senate Bill 29 – Incorporate Texas!
- Senate Bill 30 – Curbing Nuclear Verdicts
- Senate Bill 31 – Life of the Mother Act
- Senate Bill 32 – Business Tax Relief
- Senate Bill 33 – Stopping Taxpayer-Funded Abortion Travel
- Senate Bill 34 – Wildfire Response
- Senate Bill 35 – Competing for Quality Roads
- Senate Bill 36 – Establishing a Homeland Security Division within DPS
- Senate Bill 37 – Reforming Faculty Senates
- Senate Bill 38 – Stopping Squatters
- Senate Bill 39 – Protecting Texas Trucking
- Senate Bill 40 – Bail Reform
“We are moving rapidly to ensure all these bills, which reflect the will of the conservative majority of Texans, have ample time to pass the Texas House and arrive at Gov. Abbott’s desk to be signed into law,” Patrick said in a news release. “This session has started out with a hopeful working relationship with Speaker Burrows. Working together with the House, this could be the best session ever for all Texans and especially for conservatives.”
One of the priority bills that has already passed, SB 2, would create a school voucher system in the state, which would set up education savings accounts for parents to use toward private education.
The state House is considering its own school voucher bills, House Bill 2 and 3, but they have yet to pass. Despite that, House Speaker Dustin Burrows told Spectrum News, he believes it will pass during this session.
