Monday marked first day of bill filing as Texas legislative session looms

AUSTIN — While the 2020 elections continue to spark debate across the state and nation, the 87th Texas Legislature shifted into focus Monday as state lawmakers began filing bills for the session that begins in January.

And, as it was during the campaign, the logistics of the biennial session are only made harder due to uncharted waters from the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year also was marked by public debates on police brutality, voting rights and health care, all of which are likely to get attention in the upcoming 140-day session that also will be faced with political redistricting.

Several bills filed Monday by Rep. John Bucy, Rep. Diego Bernal and others looked at addressing the expansion of Medicaid.

Thirty-eight states, including surrounding states Louisiana, New Mexico and Arkansas have already expanded Medicaid in order to improve access for low-income adults — Texas is not one of them. As reported last week, Republicans are starting to express interest in expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act as COVID-19 ravages a state that already ranks last in percentage of people with health insurance.

Texas would pay 10% out of pocket for expansion with the rest getting covered at the federal level. A recent estimate revealed a $650 million price tag for the state if roughly 1 million Texans enrolled.

Voting, which dominated headlines throughout the elections, was another key theme in the over 500 bills that were filed by Monday afternoon. Several bills looked at expanding mail-in voting, lowering the voting age and voting registration.

From expanding early voting by a week to restricting mail-in ballot drop-off locations to one per county, Gov. Greg Abbott caught heat from both parties in 2020, resulting in litigation in several instances.

As the Texas Tribune reported last month, Texas has the most restrictive voting processes in the country, according to research by a political scientist at Northern Illinois University, who was joined by colleagues from Jacksonville University and Wuhan University in China.

This is in large part due to the in-person voter registration deadline, the number of polling stations and mail-in ballot restrictions.

There were also multiple bills addressing the governor’s executive power during a state of disaster. This is another topic of debate that Abbott has found himself in the middle of throughout the pandemic.

Houston Republican activist Steven Hotze was joined by numerous Republicans in filing several lawsuits against Abbott surrounding his mask mandate, stay-at-home order and others, which were all unsuccessful. Now, HB 173 by Rep. Drew Springer, looks to form an Emergency Power Board. The board would consist of the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House to provide insight during a state of disaster, including a health crisis such as COVID-19. The House and Senate Committees on State Affairs would also be on the board.

As of Monday evening, 548 bills were filed. That total number of bills filed usually tops 10,000 by the end of each session, with only a fraction of them becoming law.

Priority bills from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the speaker of the House are expected to be filed closer to the beginning of the session, which begins on Jan. 12.