House Production Down 32% from 2023
as Gay Sex Ban Repeal Barely Passes
Capitol Inside
May 16, 2025
After the slowest start in 22 years of Republican rule, the Texas House tried to play catch-up during a marathon 10-day span that ended on Friday with final votes on bills that survived a midnight deadline that left hundreds of others dead in their tracks.
The most intriguing twist in
the mad dash to keep House bills alive for the stretch of the regular session may have come on Friday when the House approved a measure that would overturn a ban on homosexual conduct on a vote of 59-56 after advancing the measure with an initial nod the night before.
The vote on the proposed repeal of the gay sex prohibition in House Bill 1738 wasn't near as close the first time around with a 72-55 tally on Thursday that featured 12 Republicans in the affirmative column.
But two Republicans who backed the bill on Thursday - State Reps. Ryan Guillen of Rio Grande City and Ken King of Canadian - reversed course and voted against the measure today. Two other GOP members who supported HB 1738 on the first vote - State Reps. Jay Dean of Longview and Ellen Troxclair of Lakeway - were absent without excuses for the final tally today on the proposal to remove the law that effectively criminalized the entire LGBTQ+ population from the books here.
But Democratic State Rep. Venton Jones of Dallas picked up but a vote for HB 1738 on Friday as the sponsor when Republican State Rep. Brad Buckley of Salado voted to send the measure to the Senate after opposing the bill the previous evening. With nine votes from Republicans on final reading, Jones probably owes some debt of gratitude as well to 11 other GOP Republicans who skipped the Friday vote on HB 1738 without official excuses.
The U.S. Supreme Court branded the Texas law unconstitutional in a case that it decided in 2003 - the same year that the GOP seized the majority in the state House in Austin. But Republican lawmakers have resisted repeated attempts to scrap the tainted prohibition as an apparent political statement in a state where GOP members have been united on measures attacking Texans who are transgender.
While HB 1738 faces an uncertain future in the Senate where Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick could justify its killing by virtue of the fact that a larger number of House Republicans voted against it than the count of GOP colleagues who backed the legislation.
Eight House Republicans - State Reps. Brian Harrison of Midlothian, Sam Harless of Houston, Hillary Hickland of Belton, Marc LaHood of San Antonio, John Lujan of San Antonio, Morgan Meyer of Dallas, Dade Phelan of Beaumont Denise Villalobos of Corpus Christi supported the gay conduct ban repeal on both trips to the floor this week.
The homosexual conduct prohibition deleting provides a dramatic contrast to a pair of bills that emerged from the House this week with transgender Texans as the main targets. But the measures that LGBTQ+ advocates are fighting - along with the sexual relations ban extraction from state law - can be found on a list that Capitol Inside has created with the top issues to watch in the countdown to the session's adjournment on June 2.
The biggest-ticket items that remain unresolved include bail reform with Senate Bill 9 set for debate on the House floor on Monday before a property tax relief measure in Senate Bill 4 and a THC regulations plan in an overhauled version of Senate Bill 3 are scheduled for votes there on Tuesday.
An analysis of the west wing production up to now showed that a total of 1,311 House and Senate bills had cleared the lower chamber by Friday. The House approved 791 bills in the past 10 days - an increase of 66 percent from the number that had passed the chamber up until that point.
But the number of bills that the House had passed by Friday at the close of business was down 32 percent compared to the same time in the regular session here in 2023 when 1,729 bills cleared the chamber by the day after the deadline for votes on measures that originated on the west side of the rotunda.
The running tally for House votes on bills this time around was closer to the mark at the same point in time during Dade Phelan's first of two terms as the speaker in 2021 when 1,331 bills had passed in the same span of time. But the bill approval rate during that particular period of time in current Speaker Dustin Burrows' first session with the gavel was only 9 percent below the average in the three previous regular sessions with Republican Dennis Bonnen at the helm in 2019 and Phelan in 2021 and 2023.
Burrows got a later start than any one of four previous speakers for the GOP after claiming the gavel on the opening day of regular session in a contest that was closer than any leadership battle in the House in the Republican era.
Top Bills to Watch in the Stretch of the 89th Regular Session
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| 1 |
Public Education |
HB 2 |
Senate panel leaves pending May 15 after House Democrats warn that Senate GOP is gutting $7.8 billion public school infusion. |
| 2 |
Bail Reform |
SB 9 |
House Calendars sets for floor vote May 19 on major bill in restrictions package that's possible special session trigger. |
| 3 |
Cannabis |
SB 3 |
Hemp THC ban on life support as May 20 House vote set on plan to regulate thriving industry six years after accidental conception. |
| 4 |
Church & State |
SB 10 & 11 |
Senate Ten Commandments and school holy time bills land in House Calendars May 15 with no guarantees for floor vote. |
| 5 |
Property Taxes |
SB 4 & 23 |
Senate $4 billion plan set for House vote May 20 with homestead exemption increase and added break for seniors. |
| 6 |
Film Incentives |
SB 22 |
$502 million bill to bring movie and TV productions back to Texas clears House panel April 28 with eventual passage expected. |
| 7 |
Parents Rights |
SB 12 & 13 |
Senate Bills to increase parental say in school libraries and policies like DEI get House committee approval votes May 16. |
| 8 |
Foreign Land Ban |
SB 17 |
Senate rejects House changes appoints conference committee for ban on property sales to foreigners deemed security threats. |
| 9 |
Migrant Voting |
SB 17 |
Senate bill to require proof of citizenship to vote goes to House Calendars May 12 after clearing elections panel in 5-4 vote. |
| 10 |
LGBTQ+ |
HB 229 & 1106 |
Bills that target transgender Texans pass House while Senate drag time ban for city libraries goes to Calendars May 15. |
| 11 |
Border Security |
SB 8 |
State and local police immigration enforcement bill sent to House Calendars May 5 while other related measures advance. |
| 12 |
Water |
SB 7 |
Senate plan to enhance supply and infrastructure goes to House Calendars May 16 after committee nod May 10. |
| 13 |
Campaign Reform |
SB 7 |
Ex-Speaker Dade Phelan passes 4 bills to strengthen political advertising disclosure that may be DOA in Senate out of spite. |
| Still On the Radar: Wildfire prevention, Squatter evictions, Abortion provider contract ban, public school communism study, tort reform, non-citizen voting ban, taxpayer-funded lobby ban |
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