AUSTIN, Texas - Texas state lawmakers won't gavel in for the next legislative session until January, but Monday they got busy filing more than 540 bills on the first day it's allowed.
Thousands of pieces of legislation are filed each session, but a fraction of them make it through to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk in the 140 days lawmakers have to complete their work. This next session will be particularly difficult with the state forecasting billions of dollars in shortfalls to the budget due to the coronavirus pandemic. Redistricting, or the redrawing of the state’s political maps, is also on the table next year.
Legislation dealing with redistricting was filed on Monday. There were also about 30 bills related to elections that had been proposed in both the House and Senate.
Here are few of the more notable ones filed Monday:
- House Bill 54 would prohibit law enforcement departments from working with reality television shows.
- House Bill 69 would ban abortions at or after the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Current state law prohibits abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
- House Bill 88 is known as the George Floyd Act -- and would make a number of policing and criminal justice reforms.
Click here for the full list of legislation that has been filed so far.