lege+water: May 2025

Every month during the 89th Regular Session of the Texas Legislature, I prepare an update on water-related legislation. The key water committees are the Senate Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee.  Senate Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs’ standing meeting schedule is Monday at 8am in hearing room E1.012 of the Capitol Extension. The House Natural Resource’s standing meeting schedule is Wednesday at 8am in hearing room E2.036 of the Capitol Extension.

How many water-related bills are there on the legislature’s plate?

The 89^th session was marked from the beginning as ‘a water session’ by Governor Abbott’s emergency item calling for a Texas-Size Investment in Water. Senate Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs Committee is chaired by Senator Charles Perry (R) of Lubbock who commented at his first hearing that “We are on the edge of the most transformative water session that the legislature has had in a long, long time.”  Representative Cody Harris (R) of Palestine chairs of the House Natural Resources Committee.

Bills to Watch

May is the elephant’s graveyard for legislation. During this month bills that once held so much promise and captivated the attention of experts, the press and the public, stagger toward inevitable death. As the month progresses, and the clock closes in on midnight (Sine die on June 2nd) the committee hearing schedules listed above start to recede into the ether.  As time wanes hearings are often called on short notice and held on the floor of the Senate or House around the desk of the committee chair. These impromptu hearings resemble scrums with the committee chair at the epicenter, surrounded in concentric circles by committee members, then lege staff, and finally an encapsulating outer layer featuring an oscillating mixture of lobbyists, agency staff, NGOs and everyone else jockeying to hear what is being discussed in the bull’s eye.

The key water bill and joint resolution this session are still Senate Bill 7 and House Joint Resolution 7. These bills promise to deliver the Texas-size investment in water called for by the Governor. Senate Bill 7 would fund the development of new water supplies and repairs to our aging water infrastructure through the Texas Water Fund, which would be administered by the Texas Water Development Board. House Joint Resolution 7 is a constitutional amendment that would approve devoting $1billion annually from state sales and use taxes to the Texas Water Fund for up to ten years, with an option for the legislation to renew the investment every ten years. Senate Bill 7 received unanimous approval in the Senate on April 2^nd and is still making its way through the House.  House Joint Resolution 7 was passed by the House on April 29^th and is currently pending in the Senate Committee on Finance which debated last week how the funds would be directed (with Chaiman Perry advocating for an 80%/20% split between new water supplies and water infrastructure). Ultimately, if both Senate Bill 7 and House Joint Resolution 7 make it, the voters will be given the opportunity to approve the necessary changes to the constitution on November 4th.

Below is a list of some of the key water-related bills making progress. I wish to thank Perry Fowler, Carlos Rubinstein and Evgenia Spears for their input on identifying the key water bills to watch at this point in the session. When we meet again in June the session will be over and all eyes will be on Governor Abbott as we watch to see which bills he signs, which he vetoes, and which he allows to become law by ignoring them. Final note, should the legislation that you were hoping would become law falls short, don’t become too distraught because the 90^th session of the Texas Legislature is only 18 months away in June.