The Blast - April 14, 2025

32 days for the House to pass legislation that originated in the House
49 days until sine die

IN TODAY’S BLAST

• Abbott and Patrick push to get their priorities passed

• Taxpayer-funded lobbying bill springs alive in the House

• NCAA settlement triggers NIL starting gun

ABBOTT AND PATRICK PUSH TO GET THEIR PRIORITIES PASSED

It’s voucher week in the House, and Gov. Greg Abbott is putting the screws to members to make sure the bill sails smoothly through the chamber.

The governor is set to meet with the Texas House Republican Caucus on Wednesday morning, ahead of House Bill 2’s and Senate Bill 2’s considerations on the floor.

Abbott and the House have the votes to pass SB 2, the bill creating the education savings account program. However, the main push is to get that passed with zero amendments, a show of strength for Abbott and Republicans ahead of the potential bill conference on SB 2.

Abbott recently had a meeting with members, but Wednesday morning will be the final opportunity before the ESA scrum on the floor, and the final pep talk to make sure his voters hold the line. Some estimates put the whip count in favor of SB 2 around 80 of 88 Republicans.

Democrats plan to lean on some of their Republican colleagues who have concerns about the current “school choice” plan. Democrats hope those Republicans will support them on amendments to the bill, but that will risk drawing the ire of the governor — and maybe his campaign coffers and veto pen.

Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is continuing to apply pressure on the House to pass his list of priority measures, some of which he noted have not yet been referred to a committee.

“Let me be very clear: I want Speaker [Dustin] Burrows and the Texas House to be as successful as possible, because that means this legislative session will be the most productive and conservative session in history,” Patrick said in a statement this afternoon. “The next 7 weeks will tell the story.”

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TAXPAYER-FUNDED LOBBYING BILL SPRINGS ALIVE IN THE HOUSE

The House State Affairs Committee heard legislation today to keep an eye on taxpayer-funded lobbying, but it’s not quite the same as what the Senate wants. That’s despite predictions by some in and around the process that the House now has the votes for a Senate-style ban.

Senate Bill 19, filed by Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, would ban political subdivisions from hiring or contracting with lobbyists or paying a nonprofit association to represent their interests. House Bill 755, filed by Rep. David Spiller, R-Jacksboro, would still let political subdivisions hire lobbyists or nonprofits but instead create a “transparency” framework for doing so.

HB 755 is a lot like what the State Affairs Committee took up in 2021 with its version of Senate Bill 10. That measure was postponed to death on the House floor.

Last month, the Senate approved SB 19 by a 20-11 vote, but not without Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, leading a 15-13 insurgency that deleted language banning the hiring of nonprofit representatives entirely.

“You saw the bill I wanted,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told The Blast the week after the vote. “People have the right to amend bills, and we’ll see what the House does.”

It’s not yet clear if HB 755 will be “the” vehicle for addressing taxpayer-funded lobbying. However, it’s the approach that’s moving.

Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Frisco, and freshman Rep. Mike Olcott, R-Fort Worth, have versions that were identical to the original SB 19. Neither have been scheduled for a hearing.

HB 755 would require the governing boards of political subdivisions to take a majority vote in an open meeting to hire a lobbyist with public money and post online the name of the lobbyist, the contract amount and a copy of the contract, in addition to the amount of money spent for membership fees or dues to nonprofits.

“This bill — if this bill moves forward — needs to stick with the approach that’s contained in this bill, and doesn’t need to be draconian, and it doesn’t need to do things that this bill was not intended to do,” Spiller said in committee.

Find the committee substitute attached below. 

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NCAA SETTLEMENT TRIGGERS NIL STARTING GUN

The House warmed up its name, image and likeness proposal today in anticipation of an incoming national substitution on NIL policy.

House Bill 126, captained by Rep. Carl Tepper, R-Lubbock, would allow schools to try to recruit and retain student athletes by entering into NIL agreements. That’s how the chamber hopes to keep up with other states after the National Collegiate Athletic Association plans to let schools enter into recruitment and retention with student athletes following a settlement last month.

Tepper warned that other states are already taking action. 

“They have full-time legislatures, and chances are they’ve already changed their laws or are changing them right now,” Tepper told the House.

The measure passed 109-35, with a bipartisan mix on both sides of the issue.

Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, D-San Antonio, argued that students should be given a trust fund to hold their payments till they graduate. Former Harvard football player Rep. Mitch Little, R-Lewisville, warned of a “deconstruction” of beliefs about college athletics in which college athletes serve as mercenaries rather than amateurs bound to a university.

“I don’t think there is a way for us to close Pandora’s Box,” Little told the House. “My concern is that the state of Texas and the Legislature not open Pandora’s Box any farther and end up in an unintended place where each university essentially has a set of employees rather than amateur student athletes.”

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• The Senate conferees for Senate Bill 1, the budget, will be Finance Committee Chair Joan Huffman of Houston, Brandon Creighton of Conroe, Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham, Robert Nichols of Jacksonville and Charles Schwertner of Georgetown. All five are Republicans.

Committee highlights week:

• The House Appropriations Committee will meet at 8 a.m. tomorrow to consider its claims bill and other proposals.

• The Senate Health and Human Services Committee will meet tomorrow (not today, as we wrote in Friday’s Blast) at 1 p.m. or the end of Senate business to take up 11 bills, including Senate Bill 2653 by Sen. Bob Hall to ban the fluoridation of public water.

View the full list of upcoming committee notices here and here.

The House will convene at 10 a.m. tomorrow.
The Senate will convene at 11 a.m. tomorrow.

View the House and Senate floor calendars here and here.

• Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine, broke a gavel today.

• Rep. Pat Curry, R-Waco, received his round of freshman hazing today. Rep. Jolanda Jones, D-Houston, pointed out that the spoonerism of his name is Cat Purry. Curry also revealed that his favorite type of curry is his wife.

• Rep. David Lowe, R-North Richland Hills, today had a potential subtweet of Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian: “I don’t know who needs to hear this but Conservatives can disagree on a specific policy or issue and still be a Conservative. We need to move away from the ‘every vote is a purity test’ mentality.”

“Abbott gave Trump credit when Texas closed a border site for booking migrants. But arrests were already low.” by Alejandro Serrano of The Texas Tribune

“How a secretive gambler called ‘The Joker’ took down the Texas Lottery” by Joe Wallace and Katherine Sayre of The Wall Street Journal

“Cornyn asks DOJ to investigate planned EPIC City development” by Nick Wooten of The Dallas Morning News

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