How to Prepare for the 2025 Texas Legislative Session
Topics
After an interim year and an intense election cycle, the Texas legislature is scheduled to begin its 89th legislative session on January 14. This year’s session is forecasted to be one of critical importance to nonprofit organizations interested in achieving significant change for the communities they serve. From the budget process to actively tracking pieces of legislation, nonprofit organizations need to stay up to date with the latest changes. To that end, we have taken the time to compile a list of key dates, issues, and committees that are relevant to this year’s legislative session.
Lobbying Reminder
Before your 501(c)(3) public charity becomes involved in campaigns to advocate for or against specific pieces of legislation (including advocacy to impact the state budget), you should know that this activity is likely to be considered lobbying that may trigger state lobbyist registration and reporting and that should be tracked against your organization’s lobbying limits. The good news is that Bolder Advocacy has a plethora of resources dedicated to understanding federal and state lobbying activities and reporting requirements. Specifically, our Texas toolkit contains information on how to get involved in the legislative process. It also contains information on how to identify lobbying activities, remain within your lobbying limits, and safely comply with lobbyist registration and reporting requirements at the state level.
Key Dates
- First day of session: Tuesday, January 14
- Deadline to file new legislation: Friday, March 14
- Keep in mind that the pre-filing period began on Monday, November 13, 2024. So far, over a thousand new pieces of legislation have been filed by Texas lawmakers.
- Last day of session (Sine Die): Monday, June 2
- This is the final day of the regular legislative session. However, the Texas Governor has the authority to call special legislative sessions to discuss specific topics. Special sessions should last no longer than 30 days, and the Governor has the right to call new sessions. The 2023 legislative session included a total of four special sessions called by the Governor.
- Governor’s veto deadline during regular session: Sunday, June 22
- Once a bill passes a vote in both chambers, it moves to the Governor’s desk for his signature. The Governor has 10 days to sign the bill into law, veto the bill, or allow it to become law without his signature. He also has the authority to veto line-items from the state budget.
- Effectiveness of bills signed during regular session: Monday, September 1
- Generally, a bill passed and signed into law during regular session becomes effective 90 days after it was signed, unless the bill contains a specific effective date.
Key Issues
Based on the interim charges set up by the leader of each chamber, nonprofits in Texas can anticipate which issue areas lawmakers will focus on. Below are some of the key categories of issues nonprofit organizations should keep an eye on once the legislative session begins.
- Border security
- Property taxes
- School choice and school vouchers
- Access to healthcare and Medicaid expansion
- Energy and the electrical grid
- Environment and responding to natural disasters
Key Committees
Committees in both chambers are tasked with evaluating bills, hearing testimony from experts and the public regarding the impact of said bills, and deciding whether these bills are ready for a vote. Both the House and the Senate maintain updated calendars on their websites that allow members of the public to learn when the committees meet. Membership in House committees is usually determined by seniority and by appointments from the Speaker of the House. On the other hand, membership in Senate committees is determined by appointments from the Lieutenant Governor, who presides over that chamber. The chairs of these committees are tasked with setting up the agenda and evaluation process for the bills they oversee.
Here is a list of key committees in each chamber that are tasked with evaluating legislation related to important issues like education, border security, healthcare, and more.
- House of Representatives committees
- Senate committees
The Budget Process
As is the case with every legislative session, the state budget process represents a great opportunity for 501(c)(3) public charities to let their voices be heard. While the budget approval process involves input from the executive branch, it is one of the main responsibilities for legislators during this legislative session. The state budget is approved every two years while the legislature is in session. It is considered a piece of legislation by the IRS, therefore any communication that advocates for an increase or a decrease in the budget will likely count as lobbying for a 501(c)(3) public charity. It will also likely count as lobbying to advocate for specific types of funding to be included (or not included) in the state budget.
How to Get Involved
Local 501(c)(3) public charities can keep track of current legislation by visiting the Texas Legislature Online (TLO)’s website. This website contains information on how to attend and testify at committee hearings and keeps an updated version of bills that have been filed. The Senate and the House of Representatives also have their own websites that include information on how to contact your state representatives and senators.
It is important to set up an action plan once your organization has identified a piece of legislation it would like to campaign for or against. An action plan will help your organization identify if the activity needs to be tracked as a lobbying activity or not. If the organization is communicating with legislators to express an opinion or a specific stance on the piece of legislation, the activity likely counts as direct lobbying that needs to be tracked against its lobbying limits. This type of lobbying activity is also regulated at the state level, so the organization needs to keep an accurate record of expenses and staff time related to the activity to comply with IRS reporting requirements and state lobbying disclosure law.
There are other avenues of advocacy that your nonprofit organization can pursue without triggering lobbyist registration and reporting. For example, testifying at a legislative hearing is not considered a lobbying activity under Texas state law due to a registration exception. As such, while that type of activity will likely need to count against the organization’s lobbying limits, it will not, on its own, trigger state lobbyist registration and reporting. The organization may also be interested in keeping the public up to date on relevant pieces of legislation and everything else that is happening in Austin. Organizations like Equality Texas, Every Texan, Texas Appleseed, and others routinely maintain legislative trackers that others can use to monitor key changes to legislation on their specific areas of interest.
If you have any questions about your nonprofit’s ability to lobby in Texas or how to comply with relevant lobbying laws, please feel free to reach out to us. Our Texas-based Bolder Advocacy team is ready and eager to assist.
Just call us at 866-NP-LOBBY or click here to submit a question through our FREE technical assistance hotline. Para asistencia técnica gratuita en español, favor de llamar al 866-675-6229 o enviarnos un correo electrónico a [email protected].