The 89th Texas Legisla- tive session will begin Monday, January 14th, 2025, it will last for 140 days concluding on June 2nd, 2025. Lawmakers will focus on the most important topics for the first 60 days. All pro- posed bills must clear a committee by May 8th, 2025, if a bill does not clear it cannot move forward in the Texas Legislative Session. This means lawmakers will not be able to vote on it, and the bill will be con- sidered “dead” for this session. To have another chance, the bill would have to be filed again during the next session in 2027.
There are a lot of bills that are up in the air. According to Fox 7 Austin, there is a proposed ban on cannabis, school choice, and sports betting that could possibly go up to vote. Many Texas lawmakers are pushing for a cannabis reform, especially for medicinal use. In 2023, HB1805 was created to expand the use of medical marijuana, it received 127 yeses and 19 noes, however the state Senate declined to move forward with the legislation.
This year, HJR70 is being proposed and will allow Texans to vote on whether to allow medical cannabis to be legally grown, sold, and used in the state. Outside of medicinal use, some lawmakers are hoping for cannabis to be available to those 21 and up. (HB1208.) Some lawmakers believe that allowing marijuana outside of medicinal use will increase accidents and other harmful things.
Some lawmakers wish to allow families to be able to use state funded money for private school
tuition and other educational expenses, instead of the money being sole- ly used for public school education. Educational Savings Accounts (ESA’s) if passed will allow parents to choose the best schools for their children providing more opportunities for a better education. This could potentially be beneficial to low-income families in marginalized communities. Other lawmakers do not wish to take away money from public schools because so many of them are already struggling with the resources they have now.
Many states have already made Sports bet- ting legal. There are only 12 states when Sports betting is not allowed, and Texas is one of them. Sports betting is placing bets on the outcome of sport games. Sports betting is a form of gambling and gambling became illegal in Texas in 1903 at the 28th Texas Legislative session. The Texas legislature did not legalize sports betting in a previous session, in that session there was a historic House vote that approved the bill, but the Senate did not pass it. Research shows, that if Texas allowed Sports betting the state could earn over $360 million in direct taxes each year. Texas may be the most profitable online Sports betting market.
There are many more changes that lawmakers in Texas will be debating in 2025. Some of these ideas might pass, others may not. All of them are important because whether negative or positive Texas residents will be affected.
