Just like Hogwarts, the Sorting Ceremony happened in the Texas House this week with the Sorting Hat coming out in the form of committee assignments. The Speaker determined which committee was the best fit for each member. Instead of being sorted into the four houses—Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Hufflepuff—members were sorted into committees that range from administration to international affairs. Let the Quidditch Games begin!
House Committee Assignments
These are the committees we will watch closely this session as their work most affects prosecutors. The chairs are Republicans, and the vice-chairs are Democrats in accordance with the new House Rules.
Appropriations (14 Republicans / 13 Democrats)
Bonnen, chair; M. González, vice-chair; Collier, Gervin-Hawkins, Goodwin, Harrison, Howard, Lozano, A. Martinez, Oliverson, Rose, Slawson, Wu, Barry, DeAyala, Fairly, Garcia Hernandez, V. Jones, Kitzman, J. Lopez, Lujan, Manuel, Orr, Simmons, Tepper, Villalobos, Walle.
Calendars (6 Republicans / 5 Democrats)
Hunter, chair; Rose, vice-chair; Canales, Gerdes, Harris, Hernandez, A. Johnson, Leach, J. Lopez, Romero, Tepper.
Corrections (6 Republicans / 3 Democrats)
Harless, chair; V. Jones, vice-chair; Lowe, Wharton, Allen, Harrison, Lozano, Meza, Schatzline.
Criminal Jurisprudence (6 Republicans / 5 Democrats)
Smithee, chair; Wu, vice-chair; Little, Louderback, Money, Bowers, Cook, J. Jones, Moody, Rodríguez Ramos, Virdell.
Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice (3 Republicans / 2 Democrats)
Cook, chair; J. Jones, vice-chair; Louderback, Virdell, Wu.
Homeland Security, Public Safety & Veterans’ Affairs (8 Republicans / 3 Democrats)
Hefner, chair; R. Lopez, vice-chair; Dorazio, Hickland, Pierson, Canales, Cortez, Holt, Isaac, Louderback, McLaughlin.
Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee on County and Regional Government (3 Republicans / 2 Democrats)
Spiller, chair; Cole, vice-chair;Lowe, Tepper, Zwiener.
Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence (6 Republicans / 5 Democrats)
Leach, chair; A. Johnson, vice-chair;Dutton, J. González, Moody, Schofield, Dyson, Flores, Hayes, LaHood, Landgraf.
State Affairs (9 Republicans / 6 Democrats)
K. King, chair; Hernandez, vice-chair; Darby, Y. Davis, Geren, Guillen, Raymond, Smithee, Anchía, Hull, McQueeney, Metcalf, Phelan, S. Thompson, Turner.
For all the committee assignments, visit the front page of the House website, which has PDF files listing assignments by committee and by member.
Bail reform
Thanks to Governor Greg Abbott making bail reform an emergency item, Senator Joan Huffman (R-Houston) laid out her package of bail reform bills in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee this week. Huffman has championed bail reform in the last three sessions and continues her mission to keep violent offenders in jail without bond, even though her bills suffer their demise in the House every session. The Governor and Lt. Governor continue to support her efforts, with Lt. Governor Dan Patrick attending the committee hearing in person this time around, which is out of the ordinary. Several crime victims’ family members testified in favor of the bills and gave their horror stories with the current bail system. Harris County was labeled as “the worst offender” when it came to giving violent offenders bail. Also appearing in person to testify in support of some or all of the bills were Montgomery County DA Brett Ligon, Comal County CDA Jennifer Tharpe, and representatives from the Dallas County CDA and Tarrant County CDA Offices.
Four of the five bills (SB 9, SB 40, SJR 1, and SJR 5) passed out of Committee with a 6–0 vote. SB 9 is the clean-up bill for the original bail reform legislation passed by Sen. Huffman in 2021; among other things, it mandates written findings for “no probable cause” determinations by magistrates and shifts bond-setting authority from appointed magistrates to elected judges for certain types of charges. SB 40 prohibits political subdivisions from using public funds to pay nonprofits that help defendants pay bail costs. SJR 1—now known as “Jocelyn’s Law” in memory of Jocelyn Nungaray, whose mother testified at the hearing—denies bail for illegal aliens accused of felony offenses. Lastly SJR 5 gives judges the discretion to deny bail to certain violent or sex crimes offenders. Both of the JRs would amend the constitution, so they require approval of two-thirds of each chamber, which has been the sticking point in the House for previous versions of SJR 5. (The fifth bill, SB 1047, was left pending in committee because most of its technical changes were included in a new version of SB 9 as approved by the committee.)
The Lt. Governor and Senator Huffman also joined the victims’ family members who testified in favor of the bills at a press conference. Lt. Governor Patrick told the media that he had taken the victims’ family members to meet with Speaker Burrows and he believed the Speaker would be able to convince 12 House Democrats to vote in favor of the bills (which would be the minimum needed to pass the JRs if all 88 Republicans voted for those measures). Senator Huffman and Lt. Governor Patrick also promised to play hardball this year to get the bail reform bills to the governor’s desk. The bills now go to the Senate floor next week (likely Wednesday), and if the Senate approves them all (as is expected), then it will be “batter up” time for the House.
Bill filing deadline
In addition to making the legislature wait 60 days before voting on any non-emergency legislation (such as bail reform this session), the state constitution also establishes the 60th day of a session as the deadline for filing general legislation. That puts this session’s Deadline Day on Friday, March 14, four weeks from today. But in reality, the effective deadline is even earlier than that because the Texas Legislative Council (which drafts bills for legislators) already has a huge backlog of work to complete before then. So, if you’ve been toying with a bill idea but haven’t pulled the trigger yet, you are now on notice—get it into a legislator’s hands next week or it may be too late. Fortunately, the naming of House committee members now gives you the final piece of information necessary to identify good (or not-so-good) potential authors for those ideas in the lower chamber. If you need help with any of that, feel free to contact Hector.
Bill filings to date
Currently, we are tracking more than 900 bills and resolutions that could impact your work out of the 4,100+ bills to have been filed so far. We regret to inform you that both of those numbers may double before the bill filing deadline closes this session. #shudder
Frankly, the idea that we might have to track almost 2,000 bills and resolutions for you this session is mind-boggling. We’ve never had to manage anything close to that volume of legislation in past sessions, but anything is possible with the right amount of coffee! The good news is that, historically speaking, half of all filed bills never get a committee hearing and are dead upon arrival. The bad news is that no one knows which ones those are just yet. Committee hearings will start in earnest in a few weeks and then the wheat will start to be separated from the chaff, but until then, everything is in play. (And if that scares you, that just proves that you have been reading some of our bill tracks online, so good for you.)
Next week
Monday is a holiday and TDCAA’s office will be closed. (Happy Presidents’ Day to all who celebrate). The House and Senate committee schedules will (let’s hope) come out, giving us some insight into where we will spend the next 12 or so weeks. It will be the last calm week before session work starts in earnest.
Quotes of the week
“You’re going to have some members of the Texas House [and] the Texas Senate who have no intention of being in that chamber in 2027. Do they care about policy? Do they really care about passing bills and making sure their 20,000 constituents are being served? They already have their nameplate on a different office, right? They’re just waiting for the primary.”
—Former House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont), predicting an increase in performative displays at the state capitol as members of both parties position themselves for runs for higher office in 2026, when one U.S. Senate seat and all statewide offices are on the ballot.
“Today’s committee assignments by Speaker Burrows demonstrate a commitment to bipartisanship and upholding the institutional norms of the Texas House of Representatives…These appointments position Democrats to effectively advocate for communities across our state”
“As far as I’m concerned, if these bills do not pass the House, I see no reason for us not to go to a special session…and another special session, and another special session.”
—Lt. Governor Patrick responding to questions about playing hard ball with the bail reform bills.
“You think that members of the Texas Legislature are afraid they’ll be indicted if they push back against the DAs?”
“I think there is a fear, and there is a lobby effort. … These DAs have so much power.”
—Exchange between Tucker Carlson and Attorney General Ken Paxton in a recent YouTube interview. We don’t have the space to do justice to the entirety of General Paxton’s views on local Texas prosecutors as expressed in his interview, but you can click that link, rewind to the beginning, and watch the first 12 minutes to get the gist of it.
###