As the 2025 Texas Legislature comes to an end, which bills could become law?

AUSTIN, Texas — The 89th session of the Texas Legislature is coming to a close, and lawmakers have been busy for the past six months.

The session kicked off back in January, and lawmakers will adjourn “sine die” on Monday, June 2. More than 6,500 bills were introduced this session, and more than 300 passed. 

So far, the governor has vetoed two bills. House Bill 353 would have made it a crime to trespass near schools and day care centers, and Senate Bill 378 would have prohibited barbers and cosmetologists from making incisions in the skin for injecting medications or substances. The governor has until June 22 to veto any other bills.

A bill signed by Abbott becomes law. If he leaves a bill unsigned but doesn’t veto it, it also automatically becomes law.

Most new laws will take effect Sept. 1.

SB 1 sets the state budget for the next two years at $338 billion. The budget is the only bill the Legislature is constitutionally required to pass.

Following its approval by lawmakers, the bill heads to Comptroller Glenn Hegar, who is expected to verify there is enough revenue to cover the planned spending. It will then head to the governor’s desk.

This bill allocates $8 billion for public school funding. The bill would increase the basic allotment, which is the amount of money the state sends to districts per student; raise teacher salaries; and limit the hiring of educators who don’t have formal classroom training, among other things.

This bill would ban the sale of consumable hemp products that contain THC, the chemical in cannabis that gets people high. It would only allow for the sale of the non-intoxicating, non-psychoactive cannabinoids CBD and CBG.

The bill has been a high priority for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick but faces opposition from those in the hemp industry, who have lobbied for Abbott to veto.

This bill is a measure to reduce property taxes for homeowners. It would change the homestead exemption, which reduces how much of a home’s value can be taxed to pay for public schools, from $100,000 to $140,000.

This bill would put restraints on Texas’ open energy market and place more requirements on businesses to help improve the state’s electric grid.

This bill would expand the list of water projects eligible for state money and would give greater oversight to the Texas Water Fund and measure performance and accountability. The bill aims to address aging water infrastructure as the state’s population booms and drought conditions become more prevalent.

Working in tandem with SB 7, this bill proposes a constitutional amendment that would allocate up to $1 billion each year to the Texas Water Fund for the next decade. Voters will decide whether to dedicate those funds this November.

This bill requires sheriffs who run or contract out operations of a jail to enter into agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to identify people without legal status who are accused of crimes. The bill would cover approximately 234 of the state’s 254 counties.

This bill would exempt up to $250,000 of a business’ inventory, often referred to as business personal property, from taxation.

This bill would require Texas public schools to post a copy of the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

This bill would require school boards to vote on allowing a designated time for students to pray or read a religious text.

This bill would extend the state’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to K-12 public schools.

This bill is aimed at giving parents and school boards more power over which books are picked for school libraries. It would also allow school districts to create a school library advisory council, made up largely of parents, who would recommend which books should be added or removed.

This bill, which would only apply to cities with at least 150,000 residents, would decrease the amount of land those cities require for single-family homes in new subdivisions. 

This bill would ban some people, companies and government entities from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from buying property in Texas.

This bill, dubbed the “Life of the Mother Act,” aims to clarify when Texas doctors are allowed to perform abortions under the state’s near-total ban. 

It does not expand abortion access or change exceptions to the law, and under SB 31, pregnant patients are still required to be having a medical emergency. However, the bill clarifies that doctors don’t have to delay care if doing so would increase the patient’s risk of death or loss of a bodily function like fertility. 

This bill bans cities and counties from using public funding to aid Texans seeking abortions in other states.

This bill, dubbed the “Uvalde Strong Act” and written by former Uvalde mayor-turned-State Rep. Don McLaughlin, would mandate that law enforcement agencies across Texas create crisis response policies.

This bill would limit higher education faculty’s influence on academic decisions, giving the university systems’ regents more power to decide what is taught in the curriculum and control over hiring decisions at the state’s public colleges and universities.

This bill aims to make it easier for property owners and landlords to evict squatters.

This bill would expand the conditions eligible for the Compassionate Use Program – the state’s medical cannabis program – including chronic pain and Chron’s disease and would allow for vapes to be sold by prescription. 

The bill will also allow licensed dispensers to open more satellite locations and adds nine dispensers, bringing the total in the state up to 12.

This bill would allow colleges to enter directly into “name, image and likeness” (NIL) agreements with student athletes. Currently, only outside entities – like national advertisers and athletic boosters – can enter NIL agreements.

This bill defines “man” and “woman” based on reproductive organs and requires that this definition be used across state statue. It has potentially wide-ranging consequences for transgender and intersex Texans, who would see their gender identity reverted back to the sex they were assigned at birth in state records.

Among other things, this bill would move the Texas Lottery to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, ban third-party couriers and ban purchases of more than 100 tickets in a single transaction.

This bill creates an Education Savings Account (ESA) program to allow Texas parents to use taxpayer dollars to pay for private school or home schooling expenses. The controversial program will begin in the 2026-27 school year.

Gov. Abbott signed the bill into law on May 3.

This bill allocates $3 billion toward creating the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas to study dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and other brain conditions. The funding mechanism for SB 5 is through Senate Joint Resolution 3, which the Legislature approved and which puts the issue before voters.

Abbott signed SB 5 into law on May 24.

This bill bans personal bonds for certain violent or repeat offenders and requires elected judges, rather than magistrates, to decide bail in serious cases.

Abbott signed SB 9 into law on June 3.

This bill prevents local governments from giving public money to nonprofits that pay for bail for defendants.

Abbott signed SB 40 into law on June 3.

This measure represents a proposed change to the Texas Constitution and will appear on the November ballot for voters to consider. If approved, judges will no longer be allowed to grant bail for violent crimes like murder and rape. The measure also requires that if a prosecutor shows someone is a flight risk and a danger, judges who do release violent offenders on bail have to explain why to the public in writing.

Abbott signed SJR 5 on June 3.

This bill would require schools to use a common but controversial definition of antisemitism in student disciplinary proceedings. The legislation is in response to pro-Palestinian protest, including those at the University of Texas at Austin in April 2024.

Abbott signed this bill into law on May 20.

This bill would create the Texas Cyber Command, designed to better secure the state from cyber attacks, according to the governor. The Cyber command Center will be headquarter at the University of Texas-San Antonio.

Abbott will hold a bill signing for HB 150 at 2:30 p.m. Monday in San Antonio.