TX Legislative Session Ends Tomorrow: Lots of Conservative Accomplishments In The Books

Monday, June 2nd, is the last day of the 89^th Legislative Session. In these final hours, both staff and members are increasingly weary from the lack of sleep due to early mornings and late nights. There are tense negotiations on the final remaining bills where the Senate and House haven’t reconciled differences in different versions of bills. Frustration began to rise over the past week as some members see their bills die as the legislative clock runs out.  In fact, three House members were taken to the hospital last week due to high blood pressure and other issues.

I’ve watched this process for many years, first in the House and now in the Senate, and have learned that patience and grace goes a long way. As my son Josh often stated, joy is a choice, and that is the calling for both me and our team in these final hours.

The good news for Texas is that numerous priority bills such as property tax relief, protecting our citizens from violent criminals, cracking down on efforts to sexualize innocent children, and improving the electric grid have already been sent to the governor. There are literally hundreds of bills passed each session, and over the summer I will inform you on many additional bills that will be signed by the governor. Also, the state budget received final approval yesterday, and in future newsletters I will be sharing more detail on the biennial budget for the 2026-2027 period. In the meantime, let me begin by sharing just some of the bills we have passed: 

SB 6:  Major Electricity Grid Reliability Legislation (see more on this below). 

SB 13: Stopping Pornographic Books from School Libraries. This legislation provides more control for parents in determining what books their children are allowed to see.
 
SB 17: Texas is Not for Sale to Hostile Enemy Nations. With this new law, those in foreign adversarial nations such as Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia who pose national security threats can no longer buy land in Texas. 
 
SB 2420: App Store Accountability Act. This legislation provides parents with tools to ensure that Big-Tech will now face guardrails in how they market and sell downloadable apps to minors. App providers must obtain verifiable parental consent, display accurate and enforceable age ratings, and implement secure and anonymous age verification in a centralized format.
 
SB 379: Banning Use of Food Stamps (SNAP) to Purchase Junk Food. This bill prohibits items such as candy, sodas, and sweet drinks from being purchased using taxpayer dollars. This is an important step to stop subsidizing the purchase of junk food which then leads to higher health care costs that taxpayers once again end up paying for.

SB 10: Restoring the Ten Commandments to Public Classrooms. (see more on this in the next section).
 
SB 11: Allowing for Prayer in Public Schools. SB 11 allows public schools to offer students and staff a daily period for prayer or religious text reading. 
 
SB 12: The Texas Parents Bill of Rights. With SB 12, we reassert the fundamental rights of parents in determining the environment for their children’s education. We prohibit DEI policies and ban LGBTQ clubs in K-12 public schools. Our schools must be safe havens for education, not a breeding ground for liberal indoctrination.

SB 14: Implementing DOGE Regulatory Reform in Texas. (see more on this in the next section).

SB 33: Stopping Taxpayers from Funding Abortion Travel. Some cities like Austin and San Antonio were using taxpayer dollars to fund lodging and travel expenses for residents who terminate their pregnancies outside of Texas. This will no longer be permitted.
 
HB 2715: Holding Local Officials Accountable. This legislation ensures that those who abuse their office are held accountable, providing more uniform and transparent removal processes. This bill earned bipartisan support, with over two-thirds of legislators from both chambers voting yes.
 
HB 229: Defining Man and Woman in Texas Government Code, The Women’s Bill of Rights. This bill establishes a legal definition of biological sex in Texas government code. It specifies that governmental entities collecting vital statistics, such as birth records or driver’s licenses, must classify individuals strictly as either “male” or “female” based on biological reproductive capacity. This bill affirms what we all know: there are only two biological sexes. 
 
SJR 37: Affirming That Only Citizens Can Vote. This November, Texas voters will have the opportunity to make an ironclad statement that only citizens can vote in Texas elections. Texas SJR 37 is a constitutional amendment that would prohibit non-citizens from voting in Texas. It clarifies that only United States citizens are eligible to vote.
 

On to the Governor: SB 6, Major Electric Grid Reliability Legislation Has Passed

In one of the most sweeping electricity legislative packages passed in over a decade, SB 6, a bill I authored to prepare Texas for the future, was sent to Governor Abbott this weekend. To illustrate the challenge, consider this data point: the ERCOT power peak in 2024 was around 86 Gigawatts (GW). However, ERCOT estimates load growth to total between 145 and 218 GWs by 2031. The vast majority of this massive increase is projected to be from data centers.
 
SB 6 is the product of nearly a year of working with stakeholder groups and negotiations with large customers, including data centers, traditional industries, ERCOT, and Public Utility Commission. SB 6 maintains a pro-business environment that is very attractive to data centers and other businesses. We want these companies to come to Texas, and our competitive electric market is a major selling point. At the same time, SB 6 supports a reliable, affordable grid to serve all customers, large and small.
 
Here are four key features of the bill:
 
New grid-planning tools. Reasonable up-front financial commitments and disclosure requirements from large load customers will give a more realistic picture of future growth. This is better for load forecasting and will prevent costly over or under grid buildout.
 
New reliability tools. SB 6 gives utilities and ERCOT additional tools to manage the loads of large customers during emergencies, including turning them down or off during load shed. Never again can we have neighborhoods go dark and without power while large load customers are fully powered.
 
Updated Grid Cost Allocation. Under SB 6, the PUC must update how grid costs are allocated to make sure large load customers do not shift grid costs to residential and smaller businesses. PUC rules around transmission cost allocation have not been updated in over 20 years and do not reflect current dynamics or cost-causation.
 
New Authority to Review Co-Location. “Co-location” is when a large customer and a generator site together. Usually, the large business customer is the sole power customer. These relationships will grow exponentially with many data centers. Generally, SB 6 supports large loads co-locating with new generation. This important strategy reduces the need for new transmission, and encourages new generation. The bill requires ERCOT and the PUC to approve proposals where a large load customer would co-locate with existing grid generation. This review will make sure that existing generation is still available to the market when needed, and protect against reliability risks and retail price escalation. This only applies to generators in operation today, not generation built in the future. 
 
In summary, SB 6 is a much-needed bill that helps us prepare for the coming growth, keep Texas “open for business,” and ensure that Texans can have confidence in the reliability of the electric grid. 

Texas Values Interview on the Ten Commandments

Last Thursday, I appeared with Jonathan Saenz, President of Texas Values, to discuss our successful effort to pass SB 10, the Ten Commandments bill. There’s no other single document in US history that’s had a more profound impact on our culture and on our laws than the Ten Commandments. I shared that we used the same language from the monument that is currently on the Texas Capitol grounds and that has already worked its way up to the Supreme Court and has already been approved. I discuss what is likely to happen next, with legal challenges already announced by the ACLU against the law. If you would like to listen to the full interview, visit THIS LINK.
 

Outlining Regulatory Reforms and Government Efficiency Under DOGE: My Interview with WallBuilders

I recently had the opportunity to participate with my friends David Barton, Tim Barton and Rick Green of WallBuilders and provide a detailed overview of SB 14, the DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) initiative I authored in the Texas Senate. This bill has passed the Texas House and has already been signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott. SB 14 seeks to implement regulatory reforms through a new Regulatory Efficiency Office. 

Even though Texas is a pro-jobs, pro-economic development, pro-business state, a recent study found that we have the fifth most regulations of any state in America. In this interview I discuss how we seek to reverse that trend, cut red tape, and insist that government agencies utilize cost-benefit analysis before any rules are implemented.  

I hope you will take a listen and give me your thoughts. You can access the interview HERE.