The Blast - June 2, 2025

Today is sine die
5 days until the local election runoffs

IN TODAY’S BLAST

• In sine die speeches, House leaders reflect on unity

• Sine die leaves bills sine dead

• CCR tension

• A portrait for Ms. T

IN SINE DIE SPEECHES, HOUSE LEADERS REFLECT ON UNITY

The Texas House began this session in a pit of deep division within the majority caucus and without a speaker. But at the end of session’s 140 days, Speaker Dustin Burrows told the chamber he was proud of how its members came together.

“We started this session as a House in a bit of uncertainty, and I believe that we ended in a much more unified and solid place,” Burrows said.

Burrows, serving in his sixth term but his first in the speaker’s chair, was elected on the second ballot on the first day of session thanks to a minority of Republicans and support from the Democratic caucus that brought him above 76 votes. After the intraparty slugfest while Speaker Dade Phelan manned the gavel, it seemed the 89th legislative session could be even more tempestuous than the last.

But as the session aged, the caucus’ wounds began to heal. Although Burrows didn’t win back every one of the 52 Republicans who voted for Rep. David Cook of Mansfield for speaker, most of the “reform” caucus ultimately came home to the leadership coalition.

“It took each of you, from all spectrums, working together, getting to know each other, to a place that I am very proud of where we landed,” Burrows said.

Tensions eased in the House, but they also eased with the Senate. Burrows managed to win back Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who touted his relationship with the Lubbock Republican as one of the best he’s had with a speaker.

Burrows said he was most proud of “what we did for public education.”

From the back mic, Burrows’ speaker pro tempore, Democratic Rep. Joe Moody of El Paso, said he had an idea what the speaker’s leadership could look like after they visited Uvalde together in the wake of the Robb Elementary School shooting.

“We started with an almost unprecedented division on what the House would look like,” he said. “Now that we’ve all fought each other and together, we all know that we’re one House, and if we remember that, we close a historic 89th session today with an eye toward an incredible 90th session ahead.”

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SINE DIE LEAVES BILLS SINE DEAD

With the late session heroics to reach a deal on judicial pay to cap off the 2025 session, the House and Senate abandoned only four bills in conference after the final weekend of negotiations. However, that included a couple priorities.

The big ticket items were House Bill 4, the STAAR test bill, and Senate Bill 30, the so-called nuclear verdicts bill.

A lot of anticipation surrounded whether the Legislature would eliminate the STAAR test, and what would replace it. However, the Senate wanted to solidify the Texas Education Agency’s role in future testing and the House wanted to calibrate the tests with national standards. Moreover, the House wanted to give school districts more room to challenge TEA’s school ratings, which had become a sticking point for districts after years of lawsuits.

Meanwhile, after the House gutted SB 30, Texans for Lawsuit Reform’s priority bill to limit personal injury lawsuit payouts, a dispute over how much discretion to give to courts over the rules of evidence tanked the bill in conference. Rep. Mitch Little, R-Lewisville, helped pen the amendment that created the final dispute, and he was included in that conference.

TLR will return, however. The group, along with the Texas Trucking Association and Texas Food and Fuel Association, today encouraged the Legislature to take up SB 30 in the next regular session.

Another casualty was House Bill 2974, an omnibus hotel occupancy tax bill. While the House bill merely expanded the list of cities that can request to implement a hotel occupancy tax, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and all 31 senators issued a statement demanding that the final product limit how many hotel projects a city can designate for the tax.

“One prominent Austin lobbyist is threatening to kill HB 2974’s reforms unless Sen. [Brian] Birdwell’s taxpayer protection language is removed,” they wrote. “This is absurd and terrible public policy, and we will not negotiate.”

And negotiate, they did not.

The final big bill to fall was House Bill 5138, which would’ve given Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton his white whale — the authority to prosecute election fraud without requiring a referral from local prosecutors. Unlike the Senate version, which would’ve made the AG the point man on election cases, the House version maintained that local prosecutors must get the first bite at the apple before the AG could weigh in. Additionally, the House prescribed a six-month cooling off period before the AG gets their turn.

Paxton went three for three last election cycle on ousting the Court of Criminal Appeals judges who ruled in 2022 that the attorney general must get a referral from local attorneys. In a statement to Texas Scorecard, he suggested that the fight would go on, even though he’s running for the U.S. Senate.

“It is now up to the people of Texas to correct this dangerous error,” he said.

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CCR TENSION

In the Texas Legislature, getting things done often relies on relationship building, and on Saturday, freshman Rep. Jeff Barry, R-Pearland, got a taste of what happens if you burn a member. 

Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, directly called out Barry on the Senate floor as the body considered the conference committee report for his bill, HB 3595, which requires assisted living facilities to have a climate controlled place of refuge for residents and create a power outage emergency plan that includes updating family members of those living in such facilities. 

“I have never … called out a member of this body or the other body ever,” Alvarado said. “But as the lieutenant governor said the other night, there’s a first time for everything.”

Alvarado laid into Barry, accusing him of lying to her twice in the course of the session about the bill. 

First, she said Barry had agreed to let her carry the bill in the Senate, since she had filed a similar bill, but then he gave it to Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock. When Alvarado said she confronted him, Barry said he forgot about that conversation.

Alvarado said she worked with Perry to get an amendment added that would include some aspects of her bill, specifically a portion that said the bill would not preempt a local government if they pass stricter requirements for these emergency plans than what the bill would put in state code. Alvarado said Barry had given the green light for the amendment, but it got stripped out during the conference committee.

“Representative Barry changed his mind,” she said. “In this place, your word is supposed to mean something,” Alvarado said. “I hope he’s watching because this is about integrity. It’s about being honest dealing member-to-member.”

The bill ultimately passed. Barry did not respond to a request for comment.

— Kate McGee

A PORTRAIT FOR MS. T

The House unveiled a portrait this afternoon of Dean Senfronia Thompson, the chamber’s longest-tenured Democrat.

Thompson, 86, has served since 1973.

With nearly every member gathered in the well of the House, conveniently by her desk, Democratic leader Gene Wu shared the backstory of the artist, Kermit Oliver, before finally giving a hint at whose portrait was displayed on the covered easel.

“As many of us have walked around these hallways, we’ve sort of noticed that maybe some of the history that’s been made here is missing, that people and maybe events weren’t always recorded, and we thought that some of that missing history should be corrected,” Wu said.

After Wu unveiled the painting and a round of applause for Thompson, a teary-eyed Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, said he’s learned more from Thompson than from anybody else.

“If you pattern your legislative career after Ms. T, you’re gonna be a damn fine legislator,” the House Administration Committee chair said. “Ms. T, it’s an honor to be here and to serve with you, and this does not mean you can retire. You cannot.”

Wu also intervened to stave off any retirement rumors.

“The book in front of Ms. T has no words on it, because her story is not finished,” Wu said, relaying a note from Oliver. “This is not a retirement gift.”

Speaker Dustin Burrows, Geren and Wu said the portrait will hang in the House side of the Capitol, the “correct end,” as Burrows put it. 

“When you speak, we listen, and when you speak, the little dog is heard,” he said.

For the past five months, Texas lawmakers have confronted major issues shaping the state’s future. How do we fund our schools? Do we have enough water? Can our power grid support the industries of the future? Can we ensure every Texan can afford a home? 

During the 2025 legislative session, The Texas Tribune shed light on those questions and demystified the legislative process for everyday Texans. And Texas 2036 has provided data-driven solutions and worked with lawmakers to focus on Texas’ future. 

On June 6, days after the session wraps up, we’ll livestream a series of conversations focused on the 2025 Legislative Session, hosted and moderated by The Texas Tribune in collaboration with Texas 2036. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas will also offer an overview of the Texas economy to set the stage.

Our first panel begins at 8:30 a.m. and the event concludes at 10:30 a.m.

RSVP today

• The big one: The SB 293 deal on judicial pay and lawmaker pensions will bump both the pay and pensions this cycle but leave it up to the Texas Ethics Commission to raise pensions by an appropriate amount every five years. The base judicial pay will increase 25%, from $140,000 to $175,000. Pensions will increase accordingly. It passed unanimously in the Senate and 114-26 in the House.

• The other big question remaining is how Gov. Greg Abbott will respond to pressure to veto the consumable THC ban, SB 3.

• The Texas Compassionate Use Program bill (HB 46) passed with the House getting most everything they wanted, including expanding the list of eligible conditions to include chronic pain, traumatic brain injury and Crohn’s disease, the latter two of which bill author Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, called unexpected wins. One conferee, Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, praised King and their colleagues for getting veterans protected under the bill. (If you don’t see Crohn’s disease in the conference committee report, that’s because it was included in a correction.)

• Texans for Lawsuit Reform claimed victory on HB 40, which would expand the role of the Texas Business Court, which the Legislature created in 2023.

• Several Senate priorities came together in the final weekend, including on sheriffs partnering with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (SB 8), school library materials (SB 13) and housing density (SB 15). However, the most contentious was SB 12, which became personal after the conference committee report included a ban on clubs about sexual orientation or gender identity, a provision that Democrats had fought to keep out of the bill.

• There was also the Texas Space Commission bill (HB 5246), which picked up a new provision allowing the Space Commission to coordinate with a city to temporarily close a highway or venue for public safety purposes during a launch. New SpaceX company town Starbase could use the measure to temporarily close Boca Chica Beach.

• Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said goodbye to his Senate “family” until next time. “There will be different senators when we come back. We already know some are running for higher office and they’re “up and out,” as we call it. We know some people are thinking about their career choices, their retirement, so it’s been a real privilege and honor to serve with all 31 of you. I wish you were all coming back, because we were a well-oiled machine.”

• The Texas House Republican Caucus named Mitch Little of Lewisville as its freshman of the year. The Democratic Caucus named Lauren Ashley Simmons of Houston as its freshman of the year.

• As the most senior senator who hasn’t yet served in the role, Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, will be the Senate president pro tempore for the interim.

• Rep. Eddie Morales, D-Eagle Pass, celebrated Reps. Ryan Guillen, R-Rio Grande City, and Richard Raymond, D-Laredo, as the House’s longest-serving deskmates. They have served as desk mates since January 2003.

HD-94: State Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, announced his retirement in a speech at the front mic of the House today. He’ll serve out the rest of his term. Read the story here.

• Rumored Austin mayoral contender Democratic state Rep. John Bucy commended Adam Loewy on the 20th anniversary of the Loewy Law Firm in House Resolution 1380, adopted by the chamber yesterday.

“U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear GOP activist’s lawsuit challenging Texas Ethics Commission’s lobbying fine” by Kate McGee of The Texas Tribune

“Texas Education Agency extends Houston school district takeover through 2027” by Jaden Edison of The Texas Tribune

“Early voting turnout for runoff outpaces first round of San Antonio city election” by Andrea Drusch of the San Antonio Report

“Meet the lawyer leading Harris County’s fight against President Trump’s White House” by Andrea Ball of the Houston Chronicle

“Crypto backer Rep. Brandon Gill violated STOCK Act with Bitcoin trades” by Dave Levinthal of OpenSecrets

Do you or someone in your office have a birthday you’d like mentioned? Email us.

(June 3) State Rep. Pat Curry, R-Waco

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Disclosure: The Loewy Law Firm and Texans for Lawsuit Reform have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.