2025 Texas legislative preview

Driving the news: The 89th regular session of the Legislature begins Tuesday.

Conservative agenda

What we're watching: School vouchers, immigration and abortion are at the top of the agenda.

• Expect socially conservative legislation, such as reclassifying abortion drugs as controlled substances, expanding restrictions on sex education, and further rules on gender in school sports, as the makeup of the Legislature moves yet further right following the November elections.
• Gov. Greg Abbott appears to have the votes he needs to pass legislation that would provide vouchers for families to help pay for private school tuition or home school supplies.

Budget surplus

Follow the money: The budget surplus that state Comptroller Glenn Hegar unveils Monday will shape virtually all policymaking at the Capitol.

• Gambling interests have tried to convince Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and resistant lawmakers that betting would be a boon to the state's bottom line. The size of the surplus could undercut that argument — as a record surplus did last legislative session.
• Lawmakers instead could devote a chunk of the surplus to property tax relief, as they did two years ago.

School funding

Meanwhile, Abbott has previously tied school voucher legislation to increased funding for public schools. The big question is how much money.

• The Legislature last increased per-student funding in 2019, forcing school districts to slash budgets to make ends meet.
• The basic allotment — currently $6,160 per student — would need to increase by at least $1,000 just to keep up with inflation, a policy analyst at Raise Your Hand Texas, a nonprofit public education advocacy group, told Axios in 2024.

The border

The intrigue: Even with a determined ally on border security soon to inhabit the White House, Texas Republicans are likely to look for more ways to restrict immigration, with a high price tag for taxpayers. In 2023, the Legislature approved spending $6.5 billion for border security.

• Republicans have introduced bills that would create a state agency similar to the U.S. Border Patrol and direct state police to "detect, deter, repel and prosecute" people attempting to enter the state illegally.

• Another GOP bill would require Texas cities, towns and counties to enter into agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement that allow municipalities to enforce some immigration laws.

Texas House speaker

Between the lines: The major early political question to be settled is who will lead the Texas House.

• House members will vote for their speaker, who determines key committee assignments, chairmanships and what legislation makes it to the House floor for a vote. The winner needs 76 votes from the 150 members.
• Sitting Speaker Dade Phelan, a Republican from Beaumont, announced in December that he would not seek reelection to the speakership, following two years of bruising, bitter arguments with Patrick over school voucher legislation and the impeachment of state Attorney General Ken Paxton.
• The chief question is whether the new speaker wins with the help of Democrats — or exclusively with Republican votes.

The bottom line: More than 2,000 bills have already been filed — and no piece of legislation is quite dead until the final gavel.