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As of today, we have reached Day 93 of the 140-day regular session of the 89th Texas Legislature. This moment may not seem particularly significant to the casual observer, but for those who follow Texas politics closely, it marks a critical procedural shift—one that could quietly determine the fate of dozens, if not hundreds, of bills.
We are now inside the final 30-day stretch before a key legislative choke point: Wednesday, May 15th—Day 122 of the session—is the last day the Texas House can consider House Bills and House Joint Resolutions on Second Reading. Under the Texas House Rules of Procedure, this is a hard deadline. Once this date passes, any House-originated bill that has not made it to the floor for Second Reading consideration is procedurally dead. There are no exceptions or opportunities for revival beyond this point. This looming cutoff now intersects with another rule that significantly affects what happens—or doesn’t happen—in the days ahead.
Understanding House Rule 6.20 and Its Impact on Bill Scheduling
House Rule 6, Section 20 establishes the rules governing how long the House Calendars Committee has to act on legislation once it is referred to them. Specifically, the rule states that the committee has 30 calendar days to vote on whether to place a referred bill or resolution on a House calendar. If they fail to act within that window, any member of the House may file a written motion, seconded by five other members, to force the placement of the bill on a calendar. However, such a motion is only successful if it receives a majority vote of the full House—a near-impossible bar for most members without the support of leadership in the lower chamber.
In theory, this rule provides a path around inaction. But in practice, it rarely leads to success. The procedural hurdles involved are steep, and the political cost of challenging the Calendars Committee, which is stacked with Speaker-approved members, is often prohibitive. What this means, effectively, is that the Calendars Committee can sit on a bill and let time expire—silently killing legislation without ever casting a vote against it.
House Rule 6, Section 20 reads,
Sec. 20. Time Limit for Vote to Place on a Calendar. Within 30 calendar days after a bill or resolution has been referred to the appropriate calendars committee, the committee must vote on whether to place the bill or resolution on one of the calendars of the daily house calendar or the local, consent, and resolutions calendar, as applicable. A vote against placement of the bill or resolution on a calendar does not preclude a calendars committee from later voting in favor of placement of the bill or resolution on a calendar.
Why the Texas House Bill Deadline on May 15th Matters
Now that we are fewer than 30 days away from the May 15th deadline, this becomes especially significant. Any House Bill (HB) or House Joint Resolution (HJR) that is referred to the Calendars Committee from this point forward is operating on borrowed time. If the committee simply takes the full 30 days it is allowed under the rules, the floor deadline will arrive before the committee is ever required to take any action at all. In other words, the clock can kill a bill just as effectively as an official no vote.
According to the Texas House legislative deadlines calendar for the 89th session, May 15 is the final day the House can consider HBs and HJRs on 2nd reading. Additional key dates follow closely behind, including May 16, the last day to consider 3rd readings for those same bills, and May 23, the final day for the House to consider Senate-originated bills on the Local & Consent Calendar. While many bills die in committees due to policy disagreements, stakeholder objections, or lack of member interest, we are now in the phase of the session where many more will die due to something far simpler—time.
How the Calendars Committee Can Kill Bills Through Inaction
From this point forward, committee chairs must act quickly to not only give a hearing to bills but also report them out. Once they do, the bill authors must work urgently to ensure those bills are referred to the Calendars Committee without delay. Then, attention must shift entirely to whether Calendars will move. But the committee has no obligation to act quickly. It is empowered by Rule 6.20 to sit on a bill for 30 days without explanation, and it is perfectly legal—even procedurally encouraged—for them to let that time run out without consequence. The end result is that the committee’s silence becomes the equivalent of a veto. No hearing, no vote, no explanation—just death by delay.
This kind of procedural power should not be underestimated. It allows House leadership to quietly stall legislation that they would rather not see debated on the floor, regardless of how much support it may have outside the chamber or even within the Capitol itself. It also creates a significant strategic dilemma for advocates and stakeholders: even after successfully navigating the committee process, there remains a final gatekeeper that can nullify that progress through inaction alone.
The Procedural Power of the Calendars Committee Explained
There is no doubt that this point in the session represents a shift from policy battles to procedural maneuvering. Calendars Committee members, whether they admit it publicly or not, now possess one of the most powerful tools in the legislative arsenal—the ability to kill bills simply by running out the clock. This power is most potent precisely because it is not obvious. There’s no news conference, no floor debate, no public rejection. The bill just never appears, and by the time anyone notices, it’s too late.
The House Calendars Committee is comprised of the following House lawmakers:
- Chairman: State Rep. Todd Hunter (R-Corpus Christi)
- Vice-Chairman: State Rep. Toni Rose (D-Dallas)
- State Reps. Terry Canales (D-Edinburg), Stan Gerdes (R-Smithville), Cody Harris (R-Palestine), Ana Hernandez (D-Houston), Ann Johnson (D-Houston), Jeff Leach (R-Allen), Janie Lopez (R-San Benito), Ramon Romero Jr. (D-Dallas), and Carl Tepper (R-Lubbock)
If you are a citizen advocate, a policy stakeholder, or a lawmaker trying to move a bill across the finish line, the time to act is now. Any delay in the committee reporting process or the referral pipeline could mean that the Calendars Committee will have the opportunity to quietly table the bill until it’s too late to matter. At this point in the session, timing is everything. A bill’s viability no longer depends solely on policy merit or political alignment. It now hinges on scheduling and procedural urgency.
What the Texas Legislative Calendar Tells Us About Time Left
The legislative process in Texas has always been designed to be limited. But this design, when paired with leadership-controlled gatekeeping, often functions to suffocate momentum rather than encourage meaningful debate. As of today, we are in the red zone. The rules still technically allow bills to move, but the practical window is shrinking by the hour. A 30-day holding period may not sound like much, but in the final stretch of a Texas legislative session, it can become a quiet, powerful tool of obstruction.
Final Thoughts on Calendars Committee Inaction and Legislative Deadlines
The bottom line is this: the Texas House Calendars Committee now has the ability to end a bill’s life without ever voting on it. They can do so simply by waiting. And given that we are inside the 30-day window for the 2nd reading deadline, every bill sent to Calendars from this point forward is living on borrowed time. This isn’t conjecture—it’s how the rules are written. And unless action is taken fast, the clock will do the work of saying “no,” even when no one else will.
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