Beginner's Guide to House Bills

The first time I learned about House Bills, I was in sixth grade, and the only context given was that one catchy song about a bill on Capitol Hill. To my best recollection, I did not put a single thought toward bills again until I was in college, and even then - the distinction between Senate and House of Representatives and the bills they produced was not that clear to me.

Here's a simplistic breakdown of House Bills, why I am choosing to document them, and what process they go through!

House Bills (hereafter HB) are different from Senate Bills mainly due to their origins - HB are written by members of the House of Representatives, Senate Bills are written by senators. For the folks that didn't pay attention in American Gov, each state has two Senators, whereas Representatives are determined by population. Here in Texas, we have 150 reps, working hard to produce bills that have the potential to turn into laws.

In the news, I mostly hear about Senate Bills - mostly because the bills seem to move faster through the system and get voted on, thus enacted on, more quickly. I received many last minute "Call to stop SB whatever before they vote tomorrow", and realized that if we got ahead of the House, we wouldn't need last minute action. We can see them proposed in a central location in real time, and with the advantage of time, our voices can be heard in a more impactful way.

Starting on November 11th of the year before the session, Representatives are able to begin filing bills - on Nov. 12th, 2024, there were around 1,000 HB posted alone. After a bill is proposed (or colloquially, introduced), it is referred to a relevant committee, like the Elections committee. Then, the committee reviews and hears on it, whittling down the many bills to a more digestible number before returning to the full House for a vote. Then, HBs are sent to the Senate, where they either agree or confer to a conciliation. Then it is sent to the Governor, who can sign, veto, or allow it into law. It is then sent to be filed by the Secretary of State and is considered law. The legislative session ends on June 2, 2025.

Each proposed bill has a chance of becoming law - in 2023, 8,000 bills were proposed, and 1,000 passed. The next step for proposed bills is to be heard by committees.

This schedule describes when committees meet to discuss, many of which are occurring today, 2/25! More updates will be coming soon.

https://house.texas.gov/schedules/committees