A proposed increase in lawmakers’ daily per diem would also raise the amount lobbyists can secretly spend wining and dining individual legislators before triggering detailed disclosure requirements.
The Texas Ethics Commission is scheduled to meet Wednesday to consider raising the legislative per diem from $221 to $290.40. Legislators receive the per diem for each day of a 140-day regular legislative session in addition to their regular salary.
The per diem amount is also linked to the amount lobbyists are permitted to spend on gifts to lawmakers without being required to identify the recipient lawmaker by name. Under current law, registered lobbyists must disclose the names of recipients when they spend more than 60 percent of the legislative per diem in a single day on food and beverages, transportation, lodging, or entertainment for a state official or employee.
That detailed reporting includes the name of the official who benefited from the expenditure, along with details such as the place, date, and amount.
Currently, the $221 legislative per diem puts that threshold at $132.60 per lobbyist per day. Raising the per diem to $290.40 would automatically increase the threshold to $174.24.
The increase would mean that a single lobbyist could purchase food and beverages for each legislator or other state official up to $174.24 per day without identifying the recipient by name.
Lobbyists are required to report their overall expenditures by categories including food and beverages, transportation and lodging, and entertainment. The higher threshold affects when they must identify the individual who benefited and provide additional details about the expenditure.
By splitting expenses, the proposed increase would also allow multiple lobbyists to cover substantially more expensive meals without individually crossing the detailed-reporting threshold. For example, two lobbyists each spending $174 on the same lawmaker could cover a $348 meal for a legislator without either exceeding the $174.24 threshold.
The per diem increase would also provide lawmakers an additional $9,716 in compensation during a 140-day regular legislative session.
At the current $221 rate, lawmakers receive $30,940 in per diem during a regular session in addition to their regular salary. At $290.40, that would increase to $40,656.
Legislators receive the per diem for each day of regular and special legislative sessions, regardless of whether they attend on a particular day, and are not required to document actual expenses to receive it. The per diem is also available to legislators for days actually spent in Austin during the interim between legislative sessions.
The TEC’s proposed rule would apply the new $290.40 rate beginning in 2027.
