How a bill becomes law in Texas

The Texas Legislature meets in regular session for 140 days, beginning on the second Tuesday of January in odd-numbered years. The next session, the 90th Legislature, convenes January 12, 2027. Every bill, firearms-related or otherwise, follows the same broad path through both chambers. Most of them stall somewhere along the way.

This post walks through each step, the deadlines that quietly kill bills late in session, and what the words we use when tracking a bill actually mean.

The steps

1. Filing. A member of the House or Senate files the bill and it receives a number (HB or SB). Ideas come from constituents, agencies, advocacy groups and the members themselves, but only a legislator can file. The Texas Legislative Council drafts most bills. Pre-filing for the 2027 session opened November 9, 2026, and the deadline to file is March 12, 2027, the 60th day of session. Local bills and governor-declared emergency items are exempt from that deadline.
2. First reading and referral. The bill is read by caption on the floor and referred to a committee: by the Speaker in the House, by the Lieutenant Governor in the Senate. Which committee gets a bill matters. A friendly committee can move it quickly; an unfriendly one can sit on it.
3. Committee. The chair decides whether the bill gets a hearing at all. At a hearing, the public can register a position or testify. The committee can then leave the bill pending, amend it, replace it with a committee substitute, or vote it out with a report. This is where most bills die, usually by never being scheduled.
4. Getting to the floor. A bill reported out of committee still needs floor time. In the House, the Calendars Committee decides whether and when it is placed on a calendar. In the Senate, a bill normally needs a five-ninths vote just to be taken up out of order, which in practice means it needs 18 of 31 senators before debate even starts.
5. Floor votes. The full chamber debates the bill on second reading, where amendments are offered and a simple majority passes it. A third reading follows, usually the next day, for final passage. Amendments on third reading need a two-thirds vote. The Texas Constitution bars passing bills in the first 60 days of session unless the governor declares an emergency or four-fifths of the chamber agrees.
6. The other chamber. The bill goes through referral, committee, calendar and floor votes again in the second chamber. If it passes unchanged, it is done. If it is amended, the original chamber can accept the changes or request a conference committee. Five members from each chamber negotiate a compromise version, and both chambers must approve that report without further amendment.
7. The governor. Once both chambers pass identical text, the bill is enrolled, signed by the presiding officers, and sent to the governor. The governor can sign it, veto it, or let it become law without a signature. During session the governor has 10 days, Sundays excepted. For bills received in the final 10 days or after adjournment, the window is 20 days after sine die. A veto can be overridden by two-thirds of both chambers, but only while the Legislature is still in session. Because most bills pass in the final weeks, most vetoes cannot be overridden. The governor also has a line-item veto on appropriations.
8. Effective date. A bill takes effect on the date it specifies. If it names none, it takes effect on the 91st day after the session ends. A bill can take effect immediately on signing only if it passed each chamber by a two-thirds vote.

Most bills that are filed never receive a hearing. A filed bill is a proposal, not a prediction.

The calendar kills more bills than votes do

A 140-day session means deadlines, not floor votes, decide the fate of most bills. A bill that misses a deadline is effectively dead for the session, even if it has the votes. Key dates for the 90th Legislature:

Date	What happens
Nov 9, 2026	Pre-filing opens
Jan 12, 2027	Session convenes at noon
Mar 12, 2027	Bill filing deadline (60th day)
May 14, 2027	Last day for the House to pass House bills on third reading
May 26, 2027	Last day for the House to pass Senate bills on third reading
May 30, 2027	Last day for either chamber to adopt conference committee reports
May 31, 2027	Sine die: the session ends
Jun 20, 2027	Veto period ends (20 days after sine die)
Aug 30, 2027	Default effective date (91st day after sine die)

The House and Senate set additional committee-reporting deadlines in May; we will note them as the session calendar is published. The last two dates are calculated from the constitutional rules, not yet officially published. Many bills specify September 1 as their effective date instead.

Sources: Texas Legislative Council, Dates of Interest; Texas Policy Research, 90th Session calendar.

Two exceptions to the usual path

Constitutional amendments. Changes to the Texas Constitution are filed as joint resolutions (HJR or SJR), not bills. They need a two-thirds vote in each chamber: 100 of 150 representatives and 21 of 31 senators. The governor plays no role. Instead, the amendment goes to the voters at a statewide election, usually the following November, and takes effect only if a majority approves it.

Special sessions. Only the governor can call a special session. Each one lasts up to 30 days, and the Legislature can consider only the subjects the governor puts on the call. There is no limit on how many the governor can call. A bill that died in the regular session can come back in a special session, but it must be filed again under a new number.

Why this matters for tracking

When a post here says a bill was filed, heard, or passed, those words refer to specific steps above. We try to be precise about which one. Lawmakers filed a record 8,898 bills by the 2025 filing deadline, and fewer than one in five filed bills typically becomes law, so the difference matters.

Term	What it means	How far along
Filed	Introduced and numbered	Step 1 of 8
Referred	Assigned to a committee	Step 2
Heard	Discussed at a public committee hearing	Step 3, not yet voted on
Left pending	Heard, but the committee took no vote	Stalled in committee
Reported	Voted out of committee	Ready for a calendar
Passed the House / Senate	Approved by one chamber	Halfway
Sent to the governor	Passed both chambers in identical form	Awaiting action
Signed / became law	Signed, or not vetoed in time	Law on its effective date
Vetoed	Rejected by the governor	Dead unless overridden in session

To follow a bill yourself, search its number on Texas Legislature Online. Each bill page shows its history, committee, text versions and votes. You can also sign up for email alerts when a bill moves.