This week it opened the door for lawmakers to introduce bills for the 2025 legislative session, which begins in January.

until tuesday parliamentarians submitted more than 1,500 billsand they will continue to come in until the March 14 deadline. Far more bills are introduced than pass both houses – last session only about 15% of bills passed.

Bills related to state abortion bans, border security, school funding and the minimum wage have already been introduced.

Blaise Gaineywho covers state politics for The Texas Newsroom, said lawmakers often file bills early because they’ve had lots of ideas in their spare time.

“There might be some pent-up energy. Remember, they only meet once every two years. So they probably have a lot of bill ideas that they want to pass and they’re finishing them up and getting them ready for the first day,” Gainey said. “Others can be more complicated, so it might take a little longer.”

Sherri Greenberg, a former Texas House representative who now teaches at UT-Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs, said lawmakers may also seek media attention for the first-day fill-in.

“They may want to show voters and others that this is a high priority for them,” she said. “They may think they’re going to be heard earlier in the session, which is false.”

Gainey said despite the excitement, there isn’t much of a chance most of the bills will pass.

“Lawmakers only meet for 140 days every two years, which means this year they will have between January 14 and June 2 to pass legislation until they meet again in 2027,” he said. “So they will always file a lot of bills, but very few will make it across the finish line. For example, last session, 8,000 bills were introduced and only about 1,200 of them ended up being signed by Governor Greg Abbott.”

Greenberg said this is by design.

“The whole process is set up to kill bills, not pass bills,” she said. “Watch the Summer Olympics with hurdlers. And it’s just one hurdle after another to get through. That’s what it’s like to try to pass a bill.”

Gainey said House Speaker Dade Phelan has reserved Bills 1 through 154 for priority legislation, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has reserved Senate Bills 1 through 40 for the same reason.

Gainey said there are already trends in what will be visible this session — chief among them Abbott’s renewed push to pass a school voucher plan.

“I think with President Trump in office, there will be an emphasis on the border and immigration. And that’s something we’re seeing so far. This was a huge issue in the Legislature last year when Gov. Greg Abbott named border security a top priority for lawmakers,” Gainey said.

“So far, bills have been introduced that would allow the state to do rapid DNA testing on people who have crossed the border and been apprehended and who are believed to be lying about their family ties and other related with the construction of a wall. .”

However, Gainey said the expected voucher bill has not yet been submitted.

“There was one yesterday that was filed, but it was filed by someone who voted ‘no’ on vouchers last year,” he said. “My guess is that this is probably not the bill people are expecting, and they’re going to be looking for something to be filed in those early bill numbers because that’s going to be what’s marked as priority legislation.”

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