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We are in the last two weeks and a few days of the 89th Legislative session. Deadlines for bills to cross over from one house to the other have passed or are rapidly approaching, and the maneuvering is beginning. An excellent example is HB 2, the House supplemental budget for public education. The bill passed the House before the debate on SB 2, the educational savings account bill. Last week, the Senate Education committee gutted HB 2 and substituted 225 pages of counter proposals that did not include an increase in the basic allotment limiting the flexibility of the proposed funding.
Similarly, after hearing HB 5337, the House companion to SB 16, the House Elections Committee voted the bill out of committee and immediately substituted SB 16, which lingers in House Calendars, having never had a public hearing in the House. SB 16 may reach the House floor this week. The League participated in a Day of Action with Move Texas and other partner organizations last week the purpose of which was to distribute a one page explanation of our opposition to SB 16.
HJR 7, which is currently pending in the Senate Finance Committee, amends the state constitution (with voter approval) to allow an investment of $1 billion per year to the Texas Water Fund. HJR 7 doesn’t specify how the annual investment should be allocated within the Texas Water Fund, giving the Texas Water Development Board the flexibility to direct funding where it’s most needed. The Senate version, SJR 66, proposes designating 80% of these funds for "new water supply" including desalination and processed produced water. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Texas water infrastructure is in desperate need of improvement. ASCE rates Texas dams a D+, levees D-, drinking water D+, wastewater D-, and storm water C-. View more details in ASCE’s 2025 report here. In view of the dire need to protect public health and safety by upgrading our existing water infrastructure, the flexibility in HJR 7 must be maintained.
As a result, we need to continue to push for HJR 7 as a better solution to our impending water shortages; wait to see what happens to HB 2 as it moves through the Senate and goes to conference; and continue to push hard with our House members to stop SB 16.
In League,
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