In a marathon session that lasted until after 3 a.m., the Texas House moved forward with its version of the state’s biennial budget, marking the largest budget in state history at $337 billion.
Despite 393 amendments having been pre-filed on Senate Bill 1 ahead of the debate, most never saw the light of day.
Before debate on the bill really began, lawmakers adopted more than 300 of those amendments in a single sweeping motion at the outset, sending the bulk of them to Article XI—the so-called “wish list” portion of the budget reserved for priorities that may or may not make it into the final version.
In one of the more notable early floor actions, members approved an amendment by Democrat State Rep. Mary González (El Paso) to zero out funding for the Texas Lottery Commission, the Commission on the Arts, and the Trusteed Programs in the governor’s office.
But the move was more procedural than substantive.
Rather than signaling intent to strip these items from the budget, the maneuver served to block other lawmakers from offering similar amendments later in the process.
The expectation is that funding for those programs will be restored during the conference committee process, where a small group of House and Senate members will hammer out the final version of the budget. By zeroing out those programs, House leadership was able to prevent substantive debates on those issues.
Highlights from the debate included the approval of an amendment by State Rep. Tom Oliverson to allocate $70 million to the Thriving Texas Families program, formerly known as Alternatives to Abortion.
Another came when Republicans soundly defeated an amendment by Democrat State Rep. John Bucy to expand Medicaid—part of a perennial push by Democrats since the passage of Obamacare.
A series of successful points of order were raised against several proposed budget riders—provisions that direct how certain funds should be spent, often used to shape policy without changing existing law. The challenged riders would have expanded Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs, but were ultimately struck from consideration after being ruled out of order.
The budget was approved in a vote of 118-26.
The Senate unanimously passed its version of the budget last month, with a proposal largely similar to the one advanced by the House.
The budget now heads back to the Senate, which is expected to vote not to concur with the House’s changes. That will trigger the formation of a conference committee—a small group of lawmakers from both chambers tasked with negotiating a final version of the budget.
In the coming days, House members will have an opportunity to approve “motions to instruct,” which are non-binding suggestions directing the chamber’s conferees on specific priorities or positions they’d like to see reflected in the final agreement.
