House deadlines near as end of session approaches

The Texas House has a busy week ahead as deadlines approach for bills still in the legislative process. Bills must be read three times on the House floor before a final vote can be taken. Typically, the first reading occurs when the bill is filed, after which it is sent to the appropriate committee for debate. Once the bill leaves committee and is scheduled for consideration on the House floor, it is debated and voted on by the full House during its second reading. Finally, the bill is read for a third time and voted on for passage before being sent to the Senate.

To avoid wasting time on bills that do not have much hope of making it through the entire legislative process, the House schedule marks mid-May as the deadline for the second and third reading of bills. 

This session, Wednesday, May 14, will be the last day for second readings of House bills and House joint resolutions and Thursday, May 15, will be the last day for third readings. A bill that passes its third reading on Thursday would have just two weeks to survive the entire Senate process, which may include amendments that could send it back to the House and possibly a conference committee, before heading to the governor's desk. 

Note that these deadlines do not apply to Senate bills or joint resolutions as they have already cleared half the legislative process and are more likely to cross the finish line before the session ends June 2.

With these deadlines approaching, expect a flurry of legislative activity on priority bills in each chamber alongside the quiet death of bills that have not reached these key checkpoints.