The 89th Texas Legislature ended its 140-day sprint earlier this week. Throughout it, lawmakers set Texas' budget for the next two years and passed some of their top priority legislation – but definitely not all of it.
In fact, representatives in the Texas House and Senate filed nearly 9,000 bills this session. But only around 1,200 made it to the governor's desk. That means just shy of 14% of the bills filed actually passed.
Despite the jubilation that comes with the end of the session, some lawmakers are now mourning what could have been with their dead bills.
Some bills never go anywhere. Others make it to a committee, but are stalled and not heard on the House or Senate floor. Some move in one chamber, but die in the other.
Dead? Yes. But forgotten? Never. The death of a bill is just an occupational hazard for lawmakers.
Still, it doesn't soften the blow.
Take Rep. Jon Rosenthal, a Houston Democrat. Back in November, he filed a bill that would stop marriage licenses from being issued to minors. That bill stopped short of being read on the Senate floor.
"Well, the fact that my personal favorite passed off the House floor died in the Senate, I'm sad about that," he said.
This was Rosenthal's fourth session in the House. It was second for Rep. Caroline Harris Davila, a Round Rock Republican. At the end, she says she always thinks of the bills that didn't make it over the finish line.
"One of those is more transparency for lobbying in this building and for different people," she said. "You've heard of the taxpayer-funded lobbying bill, and I would love to see more progress towards that next session."
Another much-talked-about bill that died in the 89th Legislature was HB 186, which would have banned minors from using social media. The bill made it pretty far before it missed a key deadline late in the session.
Its author, Republican House Rep. Jared Patterson of Frisco, lamented its death on social media, calling it the biggest disappointment of his career. Patterson wrote that he'd "felt the weight of an entire generation of kids who've had their mental health severely handicapped as a result of the harms of social media."
Rep. Venton Jones, a Dallas Democrat, lost a few bills he filed this session. But he told The Texas Newsroom he was especially sad about one in particular.
"HB 50. That was a bill that would work to improve HIV testing across our state by making sure that if a person went to their doctors, that an HIV test would be offered as a part of STI screenings," he said.
Jones is the first openly HIV+ positive member of the Texas House. But he says he's not going to give up.
"While that bill didn't make it this legislative session, I'm gonna keep on trying and keep on working to make sure that we're improving healthcare access and other issues to work on for the state as we move on to the interim and next session," he said.
On both sides of the aisle, lawmakers can agree that a bill they've spent their time on — only for it to never see the light of day — is devastating.
But luckily, they've got some time to prep for the future. Lawmakers' next regular session isn't until 2027. Until then, they can work to get their legislation off the cutting room floor, and freshened up for next time.
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