Bills That Died and Thrived During the 2025 Texas Legislative Session

The final day of the 2025 Texas legislative session is finally near. June 2, ding-dong, the witch is dead.

Unless a special session is called, of course. In which case, ding-dong, the witch will be back in Austin for up to 30 days, because Gov. Greg Abbott said so. Abbott called four special sessions in 2023, so it’s not hard to imagine the Capitol’s halls filled with grumbling legislators whose non-refundable trips to Cancun were interrupted so that a ban on DEI in K-12 public schools can be completed. C’est la vie.

Nearly 9,000 bills were filed this legislative session, but only a handful will see Abbott’s desk, thanks to what one state representative described as “a miserable session.” After June 2, the governor has 20 days to sign or veto any legislation.

The Texas Constitution requires any proposed legislation to be read three times, on three different days, in both the House and Senate before it can be approved as law. At this point, we can almost conclude that legislation that hasn’t gotten those three readings is likely dead. However, zombie bills resurrect from time to time, most often in the form of an amendment stapled onto some other piece of legislation. Stranger things have happened than a seemingly defunct piece of law slipping through the cracks of a winding-down session.

To the best of our ability, we’ve pulled together a list of bills we are 99% sure won’t pass this legislative session. And hey, just for fun, we’ve added some that have passed, too. Unless a specific date is written into the bills, new laws go into effect Sept. 1.

Happy end of session, all.

Bills That Are (Probably, Mostly, Almost Certainly) Dead

House Bill 186: A bill that would keep minors from starting social media accounts stalled out in the Senate Wednesday night. Wednesday’s midnight deadline was the last chance for each chamber to consider bills already passed by the other. Republican Rep. Jared Patterson of Frisco authored the bill that would have created one of the country’s strictest bans on minors using or creating accounts on apps like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

“The way this bill is currently written, it would end up restricting the First Amendment rights of minors,” Megan Stokes, state policy director of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, told state lawmakers earlier this month.

Even as HB 186 has stalled out, Abbott signed several bills to strengthen protections for minors online into law. Earlier this week, he approved SB 2420, which calls for app stores to adopt age verification settings and parental controls.


House Bill 3187: Plano Republican Rep. Matt Shaheen's “DART Killer” bill effectively died earlier this month after failing to get a second hearing on the House floor. The bill outlined a plan to decrease the amount of funding member cities contribute to the transit agency by 25%, which DART officials warned would be devastating.

“If HB 3187 comes to pass, all of these issues that [the Observer] is talking about not only get exacerbated, but it will stop service to 30% of the area here in North Texas. We won’t be able to get new buses,” Jeamy Molina, an executive vice president and chief communications officer for DART, said last month when asked by the Observer about claims that DART bus drivers feel unsatisfied with their working conditions.

A recent estimate by DART officials found that HB 3187 could have affected 5,800 jobs if it had advanced. State Sen. Angela Paxton filed an identical bill targeting regional transportation authorities, SB 3075, that failed to meet critical deadlines.


House Bill 3006: A bill requiring all Texas prisons to install air conditioning by 2032 has likely died in the Senate after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick failed to assign it to a Senate committee for debate. Written by Democratic Rep. Terry Canales, this is the third legislative session in which a bill targeting prison cooling has failed to advance past the Senate.

Last month, the House voted in favor of the proposed law. HB 3006 was the only prison heat-related bill to pass a House committee. The failure to pass the legislation — or even send it to committee for discussion — comes amid ongoing litigation surrounding heat conditions in Texas prisons. It’s an issue U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman called “plainly unconstitutional.”

“I don’t know how state leaders look at themselves in the mirror with this situation persisting,” Dallas County Rep. John Bryant, who filed a bill that would have required temperature gauges to be installed in prisons and reports to be filed when extreme temperatures are recorded, told the Texas Tribune earlier this year. “It’s a moral, and now, a legal responsibility.”


Also: Twin bills HB 3458 and SB 1652, which would have barred the retail sale of cats and dogs across the state, both failed to meet deadlines needed to advance. Elsewhere, House Bill 1738, authored by Dallas Democrat Venton Jones, called for the repeal of Texas’ ban on “homosexual conduct” and was adopted by the House before failing to reach a committee in the Senate. (The ban remains on the books, but it's unenforceable thanks to the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Lawrence v. Texas.

Senate Bill 16, co-sponsored by 50 Republicans in the House, would have required Texas voters to provide proof of citizenship at the ballot box. The measure failed to be scheduled for a floor debate. After passing through the Senate, Senate Bill 2880, which would have made it easier to sue abortion pill providers, stalled out in the House.

An effort to eliminate red tape for religious organizations hoping to build housing on their land, Senate Bill 854 or the “Yes In God’s Backyard” bill, failed to pass either house after getting roped into the controversy surrounding Collin County’s Epic City housing development, intended to build a Muslim community.

Bills That Are Alive And Well

Senate Bill 2: After 30 years of school voucher bills, the House successfully passed SB 2, the most discussed and watched bill this session. The bill has already been signed into law and will create a school voucher system in Texas beginning in the 2026-2027 school year.

The new law allows parents to use public funds for private education. In the first two years, the Legislature has set aside $1 billion to fund the voucher program, but estimates predict the program's costs could increase to more than $4 billion by 2030.

The bill was earmarked as a legislative priority by the three most influential politicians overseeing the session, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows and Gov. Greg Abbott, who, before the session began, promised to sign the bill if it reached his desk and did just that in early May.

“When I ran for reelection in 2022, I promised school choice for the families of Texas,” said Abbott during the bill's signing at the Governor's Mansion. “Today, we deliver on that promise. Gone are the days that families are limited to only the school assigned by government. The day has arrived that empowers parents to choose the school that’s best for their child.”


Senate Bill 3: Patrick has pulled out every stop in pushing his primary focus this session, SB 3, which places a blanket ban on all hemp-derived THC products in the state, shattering an $8 billion industry and threatening the livelihood of thousands of Texans.

The bill, which cleared the Senate but was momentarily stalled in the House by a failed amendment that would make exceptions for THC beverages, is coming to Abbott’s desk in its most sweeping version. In his attempts to squash the industry, Patrick threatened to withhold one of the governor’s priority bills, likely triggering a special session, unless the bill was signed.

In a dramatic showing, Patrick called a news conference to discuss the harms of THC products, complete with “end-of-session beverages and snacks.” The “beverages and snacks,” concealed initially by a large purple drape, were indeed all THC-infused.

“This is everything you can buy at a smoke shop and a vape shop that will either cause, potentially, paranoia, schizophrenia, tremendous health issues,” Patrick said after revealing the table of lollipops, sodas and other treats. “Why have I called you here today? Because I don’t think the media has taken this issue seriously. I don’t think the story has been told. You talk about jobs being lost, you talk about a big industry, a big industry selling all of this to kids. … This is serious business. This is not Dan’s folly. This is not Dan’s priority. This is to save an entire generation of being hooked on drugs.”


Senate Bill 10: A bill requiring teachers to display framed copies of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms is on its way to Abbott’s desk, and he has announced his intention to sign it into law.

State lawmakers debate bill that would put Ten Commandments in classrooms.

Let's get this bill to my desk. I'll make it law.https://t.co/KI4CquGXWz

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) May 2, 2025

A similar bill was filed last session but failed to pass the House. This session’s version, SB 10, passed in an 82-46 vote after Democratic attempts to add other religious texts from denominations such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam failed.

Critics of the bill highlight that the forced display of the Decalogue opposes secularism and is unfair to non-Christian teachers and students. The bill sets certain requirements for the display, including the size, legibility and durability of the poster.

A similar law in Louisiana mandating the display of the Ten Commandments was almost immediately blocked by a federal judge. The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom From Religion Foundation have already stated their intention to sue Texas over the law.

Senate Bill 22: Patrick and Abbott aren’t the only Texas men pushing their priorities. An unlikely duo, both speaking with the drawl of a true native, Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, have been a powerful lobbying force behind a film industry incentive bill intended to lure movie makers and production teams to Texas.

The bill designates $300 million every two years for the next 10 years, for a total of $1.5 billion, through a newly established Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Fund.

Aside from regularly tripping to the Capitol to speak to the Legislature, Harrelson and McConaughey rounded up other Texas-lebrities including Dennis Quaid and Renee Zellweger to star in their “True To Texas - Let’s Bring Productions Home” commercial pushing the bill.

“A small fraction of the Texas budget surplus could turn this state into the new Hollywood,” Harrelson says in the commercial. The bill passed the House in a 114-26 vote and will wait for Abbott to call “action.”