Open Government Reforms on Agenda as 89th Texas Legislature Gets Underway

posted on 1.17.2025

While the 89th Texas Legislature officially began last week, TAB's work on 2025 Open Government and other newsroom legislative issues was ongoing throughout 2024. TAB's review of 2025 filed legislation, for example, began last fall. So did TAB's schedule of grassroots meetings between broadcasters and their statehouse lawmakers. There have also been numerous planning and strategy meetings on various pieces of legislation that would benefit the newsgathering process.

Lawmakers filed 1,511 bills and resolutions on Nov. 12, the first day of the regular filing period. Regular filing continues through March 14. Through the end of last week, house and senate members had filed more than 2,500 bills. There also have been approximately 200 simple, joint, or concurrent resolutions filed.

On average, lawmakers file 6-7,000 bills during a regular session, but they outdid themselves in the 2023 Legislature, filing 8,046 house and senate bills. Adding all filed resolutions to that number brought the 2023 total to 11,807 measures.

That's a lot of bills, but historically, very few of them make it all the way to the governor's desk for action. The historic passage rate is approximately 17-20 percent. Of those 8,000 house and senate bills filed in 2023, only 1,246 made it to Gov. Greg Abbott. That amounted to a 15.48 percent passage rate.

Making it to the governor's desk does not mean a bill is home free. In 2023, Abbott vetoed 77 of those 1,246 bills, including TAB's franchise tax clarification bill affecting Radio broadcasters. SB 1614 by Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, along with dozens of other Senate bills that discussed tax policy, was vetoed by Abbott in an effort to strongarm the upper chamber into backing Abbott's preferred property tax reform measure, a House bill that Senate lawmakers eschewed in the 2023 regular session. TAB is back with this tax clarification measure in the 2025 session.

2023 Legislative Wins

Despite the veto setback noted above, there were some big wins in the 2023 session. TAB's signature media law win was a successful defense of the Citizen Participation Act, Texas' anti-SLAPP litigation law that TAB helped pass in 2011. TAB resumed work on this issue in 2024 by engaging with the opponents who advanced last session's problem bill in an effort to reach agreement on amendments that would address these opponents' concerns while protecting journalists' First Amendment interests. Those efforts are ongoing.

Another 2023 win was the partial fix to the so-called "dead suspects loophole" in the Texas Public Information Act (TPIA) that stymied Texas families and newsrooms for years. The final version of HB 30 by St. Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, was heavily edited by the Texas House and Senate as it moved through the legislature, but the "as passed" version of HB 30 allows Texas citizens access to more information that will help hold accountable the law enforcement that taxpayers fund. Gov. Abbott let the bill become law without his signature, a clear nod to the Texas law enforcement community, but in stark contrast to the near unanimous support the measure saw in House and Senate votes.

The other big Open Government win was a measure clarifying the definition of "business days" in the TPIA. Open Government advocates had long sought a reform so local governments across Texas would not be left to decide on their own which days they are open and closed for TPIA requests. Relief came in the form of HB 3033 by Rep. Brooks Landgraf, R-Odessa, which included language of another House bill authored by Rep. Terry Canales that spoke to this issue. Until HB 3033 became law, lack of a clear TPIA definition of business days led to governmental abuse that thwarted requestors of public records.

2025 Legislative Goals

As in several recent legislative sessions, TAB is part of the Texas Sunshine Coalition, a group of non-profits seeking to further the Open Government cause. The coalition is seeking to address issues with the Texas Public Information Act (TPIA) and the Texas Open Meetings Act (TOMA). Specifically:

• TPIA Enforcement - implementing enforcement measures to make the TPIA work as intended.
• User-friendly Initiatives - implementing operational measures to make the TPIA more functional and responsive.
• Searchable-Sortable Records - codifying existing attorney general guidance into law by requiring governmental bodies to produce documents in their original format.
• Dates of Birth Access and Verification - disclosing dates of birth in public records involving candidates for public office or those involved in the criminal justice system.
• Open Meetings - adopting TOMA improvements to address proper meeting notice, closed meeting provisions, enforcement, and citizen participation in open meetings.

Other 2025 TAB newsroom initiatives that are not part of the Coalition's work include ensuring state law permits the use of drones in newsgathering (just as helicopters are permitted) to enhance safety and reduce costs for professional journalists, as well as needed legal protections against deepfake images of well-known local broadcast journalists and on-air personalities to preserve the community's trust. Additionally, TAB seeks to prevent companies from taking broadcasters' online content without payment or permission, as well as protecting broadcasters' ability to report stories on deepfakes without the risk of violating state law.

What Happens Next in the Session?

After a contentious House Speaker battle that was waged since the end of the 88th Legislature, House lawmakers returned to Austin last week and elected a new Speaker of the House. A fight between Establishment and Far-Right factions of the Texas Republican Party led to a nasty GOP primary fight that saw former Speaker Dade Phelan, a Beaumont-area Republican, narrowly survive a runoff election. Phelan eventually withdrew from the Speaker's race late last year. Further acrimonious GOP in-fighting eventually led to two Republican speaker candidates, the Establishment preferred Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, and the Far-Right preferred Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield.

Neither Burrows nor Cook was able to garner enough support from the chamber's 88 Republican lawmakers to reach the need 76 votes to win during the first ballot. A lone Democrat nominee, Rep. Rep. Ana-María Rodríguez-Ramos, D-Richardson, received 23 votes from her fellow Democrats. In a runoff second ballot between Burrows and Cook, 36 Republicans and 49 Democrats voted for Burrows to secure his win. Those GOP votes for Burrows will, no doubt, produce some interesting theatrics in the 2026 GOP primary election.

House and Senate lawmakers return today to debate each chamber's rules. The real work of the session does not get underway until both the House and Senate name committee members. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, released the Senate's Committee assignments last Friday. There were no changes to the Chairmanships of the three Senate committees that could hear most legislation affecting broadcasters. Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown will chair the Senate Committee on Business and Commerce. Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, who met with his local broadcasters in November, will again chair the Senate Committee on Jurisprudence and the Senate Committee on State Affairs.

Committee assignments for the 150-member Texas House typically are not released by the House Speaker until the first week of February. Speaker-elect Burrows began meeting with House members concerning their committee preferences last Thursday.

Gov. Greg Abbott will lay out his emergency items in an expected February State of the State address. These are the topics which can be addressed first by lawmakers on the floor of each chamber. Hearings on that legislation will consume February once committees are operational. Work on other issues will begin to take place in committees toward the end of February, but such bills can't be considered for floor action until March. While it seems like a waste of precious time in a 140-day long legislative session, it is often said at the Capitol that the authors of the Texas Constitution set up the process to kill legislation, not pass it.

Keeping Up with TAB's Newsroom Legislative Efforts

Throughout the session, TAB's Newsroom Legislative Committee will monitor and act on legislation with potential impact on Texas broadcast newsrooms. The committee arranges for broadcasters to testify at bill hearings and call local lawmakers on good and bad pieces of legislation. It includes newsroom managers, investigative journalists, media law attorneys, and TAB staff. The committee meets weekly to review filed legislation and discuss legislative strategy.

General managers and newsrooms can keep up with TAB's newsroom legislative efforts by reading the TAB Billwatch. This weekly email update contains information on bill filings, bill movements and news of TAB's newsroom legislative agenda for the session. It's the best way for interested broadcasters to stay up to speed on legislation affecting newsrooms and to be informed when station staff are called upon to weigh in with lawmakers as the session progresses. TAB looks forward to working with you and your station's staff to advance the cause of meaningful, impactful journalism at the Capitol so we may best serve the Texas communities in which we live and serve.

Questions? Contact TAB's Michael Schneider or call (512) 322-9944.

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