(C) Texas Tribune This story was originally published by Texas Tribune and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Blast - May 15, 2025 [1] ['The Texas Tribune'] Date: 2025-05 Points of order this session have taken roughly 30 minutes to deliberate. Each moment like that means more bills will die. The House was moving quickly through the final passage of eight pages of bills for most of the day. But only a few bills onto the second reading calendar, Canales raised two points of order against HB 5151 by Reps. Terry Wilson , R-Georgetown, and Ellen Troxclair , R-Lakeway, to block an aggregate crushing facility from moving into an area that would affect Camp Longhorn. His second point of order dealt a killing blow. Canales’ bill sits on page 12 and Luther’s bill sits on page 13. The House got as far as page 13 of its calendar when it adjourned before 10 p.m. yesterday. Before Rep. Angie Chen Button , R-Garland, outlines the squatters bill, the House will need to get through measures like HB 3006 by Rep. Terry Canales , D-Edinburg, to mandate A/C in prisons by 2032, and HB 3441 by Rep. Shelley Luther , R-Tom Bean, which would make vaccine manufacturers liable for vaccine injuries. Members expect to get somewhere around page 15 to 20 tonight, putting HB 32 at a critical spot in the calendar, and one that will likely draw chubbing from Democrats. With four and a half hours to go till the bill filing deadline, the Texas House is on page 11 of today’s supplemental calendar with no hope of getting to the end. The big question now is whether the House can get to page 16, where the anti-squatters bill, House Bill 32 , looms as a major speedbump to any forward progress. “We’re looking at all options to get all Republican priorities across the finish line.” The Texas Ethics Commission is up for sunset this year, meaning the Legislature has to pass Senate Bill 2403 or the TEC will be phased out. A member could file an amendment shoehorning the ban into the sunset bill. But behind the scenes, those who want to ban taxpayer-funded lobbying have another vehicle they could pursue. The committee also failed to advance a competing bill by Rep. David Spiller , R-Jacksboro, House Bill 755 , that — instead of banning the practice — would require local governments to disclose who they’re contracting with to lobby. State Affairs took testimony on the bill in committee but didn’t vote it out in time to pass. The House State Affairs Committee, chaired by Rep. Ken King , R-Canadian, has not budged on that bill. When The Blast asked him today about the bill’s status, all he could muster was an “I don’t know.” Senate Bill 19 , a priority of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick , would ban taxpayer-funded lobbying, although an amendment added by Sen. Robert Nichols , R-Jacksonville, and others would let local governments pay nonprofits to lobby on their behalf, such as the Texas Municipal League or the Texas Association of School Boards. Bills to address taxpayer-funded lobbying are stalled in the House State Affairs, but members trying to ban the practice aren’t out of options. A RARE THIRD READING DEATH After an uneventful preliminary passage yesterday, Rep. John Bucy’s House Bill 2442 died a partisan death today. The Austin Democrat’s bill would automatically send a runoff ballot to voters who voted by mail unless the voter opts out. Bucy said the effort is intended to help simplify the process for senior Texans and increase runoff participation. Bucy’s layout was simple yesterday, when the bill passed 78-57. But today, as the bill was up for final passage, he came armed with a printout example of the current application. His identical version from last session, HB 374, passed off the local, consent and resolutions calendar, the slate of uncontentious bills to be passed expeditiously. “In this session, your scorecard said vote against it,” Bucy said, referring to the sheets from advocates that tell members how to vote. “Many of you had a philosophical change.” Rep. Carl Tepper, R-Lubbock, was the first member at the back mic, where he had concerns about what happens if a voter dies between the time they request the initial ballot and the runoff. There’s roughly a month and a half between an initial election and its runoff. “We’ve been trying, desperately, to clean up these voter rolls, and we’re not looking for another way to increase the voter rolls of voters who may or may not still exist as voters in these elections,” Tepper said. After Tepper, three Democrats asked clarifying questions trying to highlight how innocuous they believe the bill is. Still, only three Republicans supported the bill as it died 62-77: Elections Committee Chair Matt Shaheen of Plano, former Speaker Dade Phelan of Beaumont and Rep. Morgan Meyer of University Park. Bills rarely die on final passage. So, what changed between yesterday and this morning? For one, about 15 minutes after HB 2442 preliminarily passed, Bucy took to the back mic against HB 1091 by Rep. Dennis Paul, R-Houston, which would move up the deadline to receive mail-in ballots to Election Day. Then, he raised a point of order targeting the bill analysis, forcing the bill back to committee and effectively killing the measure. [END] --- [1] Url: https://thetexastribune.beehiiv.com/p/the-blast-may-15-2025-aeb0bca687b659c9 Published and (C) by Texas Tribune Content appears here under this condition or license: Used with Permission: https://www.texastribune.org/republishing-guidelines/. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/texastribune/