The Texas Legislature has a number of storied traditions associated with its regular sessions taking place in odd-numbered years. One is known as “budget night”—when state lawmakers debate and pass the state budget bill in their respective chambers. This Thursday, April 10, is when Budget Night 2025 will take place in the Texas House.  

Budgets, projections, and committees, oh my! 

Budgeting is a year-round process. Even when the Legislature is not in session, state agencies are evaluating their budget needs to share with lawmakers, the state comptroller is making revenue projections, and the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) is preparing initial budget drafts. We often say the budget is the only piece of must-pass legislation in each session. Without the adoption of a two-year budget via the General Appropriations Bill, state government would grind to a halt, forcing the governor to call lawmakers back for a special session (or two, or three …).  

The House and Senate each develop their own budget bill every session, which gets discussed and marked up over the course of multiple hearings by the House Appropriations Committee and Senate Finance Committee, respectively. Ultimately, only one appropriations bill will make it to the governor’s desk, and the Legislature traditionally alternates between adopting a Senate bill or a House bill. This year, the House developed House Bill (HB) 1 by Appropriations Committee Chair Greg Bonnen (R–Friendswood), and the Senate developed Senate Bill (SB) 1 by Senate Finance Committee Chair Joan Huffman (R–Houston), but SB 1 will be the final vehicle.  

In January, ATPE shared details on the respective budget bills filed in the House and Senate and how each would impact public education funding. The two bills were similar, but each reflected  the differing priorities of the House and Senate leadership. Both bills earmarked $1 billion for a top priority of Gov. Greg Abbott (R): private school vouchers. The bills take slightly different approaches to funding public schools and teacher compensation, among scores of other needs. 

Scripting vs. improv: The Senate’s approach vs. the House’s modus operandi 

The full Senate passed SB 1 on March 25 with little fanfare. A single floor amendment was offered and eventually withdrawn before the senators voted unanimously to send SB 1 to the House. Unlike the House, the Senate is known for working out behind-the-scenes deals and, for the most part, knowing exactly what will transpire once a bill makes it onto the Senate floor. (The upper chamber has little appetite for budget night chicanery.) The Senate’s budget bill was next referred to the House Appropriations Committee for a hearing. House committee members substituted their own preferred budget language into SB 1 and gave it the greenlight for consideration by the full House. 

The House Calendars Committee plays a unique role in determining if and when a bill will be placed on the calendar for a floor debate. Because of the size and magnitude of the budget bill, the committee also proposes special calendar rules to govern the anticipated floor debate on the bill. On April 2, the House adopted a calendar rule for SB 1 that includes, for example, a requirement that floor amendments be revenue neutral. (That means any proposal that would require additional spending in SB 1 must identify something equal in the budget to cut.) 

Ahead of the House floor debate on SB 1, proposed amendments must be prefiled by a given deadline. In contrast with the Senate, the House will consider hundreds of floor amendments in a debate that can easily stretch on for 24 hours. It’s not uncommon for Capitol insiders to wager on what time the debate will end. This year’s packet of prefiled House floor amendments for SB 1, posted Monday, contains 393 amendments and is 469 pages long! (That doesn’t include amendments to the amendments, which may be offered spontaneously during the debate.) 

What we’re watching for 

Once the floor debate begins Thursday, the House will consider each of 13 articles comprising SB 1 and their respective amendments. Article III houses the education budget, for which 89 floor amendments have been prefiled. Most of the amendments call for moving money from one program to another or providing contingency funding for separate bills being carried by the amendment’s author. With respect to the Article III budget, several amendments aim to provide greater property tax reductions. Other amendments seek to prohibit the state from spending money on particular initiatives, such as diversity measures. There is a prefiled amendment by Rep. John Bryant (D–Dallas) to take the $1 billion that has been earmarked for vouchers and use it instead to give a bonus to every classroom teacher. 

Many prefiled amendments will be withdrawn before ever being considered. However, for the amendments authors choose to move forward with, there will be debates, questions, and delays as they are introduced on the House floor. If a legislator calls a point of order on an amendment, the House parliamentarian will review whether the amendment violates any rules, and House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R–Lubbock) will rule on whether to sustain the objection or enable the amendment to move forward. Some amendments will be withdrawn; others will be put to a vote. In many cases, the author or sponsor of the budget bill will move to table the floor amendment, meaning a “yes” vote kills the amendment, while a “no” vote keeps it alive. Other times, the House may vote “yes” or “no” on the merits of the amendment itself. 

The dreaded “Article XI” 

Another possible fate for a floor amendment is placement in Article XI of the budget. Reserved as a sort of wish list for “agency programs and strategies not funded elsewhere” in the budget bill, it keeps a floor amendment alive in the event that a conference committee decides to revive and fund it through one of the other budget articles late in the process. (The conference committee is appointed by the House and Senate to resolve differences in versions of the same bill passed by each chamber and come up with a final draft to be ratified by both.) Though technically still viable, floor amendments relegated to the graveyard that is Article XI are often never seen again.  

Budget night in the Texas House tends to be a raucous, overnight proceeding. The floor is noisy, tempers may flare, deals are negotiated on the fly, and lawmakers enter and leave the chamber in a steady stream all night long—often retreating to back rooms or private offices for a bite to eat, courtesy of lobbyists, or (allegedly) even a sip of whiskey. It’s not always pretty to watch the sausage being made, but it’s a time-honored tradition. So, to all those who celebrate the occasion, I wish you a Happy Budget Eve!