Legislative Advocacy and Alerts
Get involved with APATX legislative advocacy efforts!
THE 89TH SESSION OF THE TEXAS LEGISLATURE
View the APATX Advocacy Committee Legislative Bill Tracker
The APATX Legislative Advocacy Committee wants to help you stay informed about the legislative process and bill movement! Please see the tracked bills that have been scheduled for Legislature Committee meetings next week.
If you wish to comment on a bill to the APATX Advocacy Committee or offer a different opinion, please send an email to: advocate@apatexas.org. We are still finding out about bills we are not aware of from our email lists, so please let us know if we are missing one.
DEVELOPMENT CHARACTER
HB 2559
Patterson | et al. SP: Bettencourt
Relating to the imposition by a municipality of a moratorium on property development in certain circumstances. Scheduled for Sen. Local Government on Mon. May 5th. Oppose.
ENVIRONMENT
SB 75
Hall | et al.
Relating to the resilience of the electric grid and certain municipalities. Scheduled for House State Affairs on Mon. May 5th. Support.
HB 2018
Ashby | et al. SP: Hinojosa, Adam
Relating to the Texas Farm and Ranch Lands Conservation Program. Scheduled for Senate Water & Ag. on Mon. May 5th. Support.
TRANSPORTATION
SB 2799
Creighton
Relating to increasing the criminal penalty for the offense of reckless driving. Scheduled for Senate Transportation on Wed. May 7th. Support.
HOUSING
HB 293
Swanson | et al.
Relating to the requirements for applications for low income housing tax credits for developments financed through the private activity bond program. Scheduled for House Intergovernmental Affairs on Tue. May 6th. Support.
HB 3205
Campos
Relating to the imposition of a county housing first initiatives fee in certain counties. Scheduled for House s/c on County & Regional Government on Mon. May 5th. Support.
Prepared Testimony
SB 840 - Multi-Family and Mixed-Use in Commercial Zoning
SB 2477 Multi-Family and Mixed-Use in Commercial Zoning
HB 4398 Low Income Housing Tax Credits
HB 5187 - Multi-Family and Mixed-Use in Commercial Zoning
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The APATX Advocacy Committee is monitoring and evaluating the 2025 89R legislative session with the help of more than 75 APATX members, representing both cities, counties, elected and appointed officials as well as private interests such as consulting firms and developers. The Committee is monitoring almost 200 bills and fully expects the final number to be over 250 bills that have been determined will affect Planning and Development in Texas. The bills are analyzed in the Advocacy Committee Legislative AirTable and are divided into categories by the six Advocacy subcommittees monitoring the legislation. Those 6 subcommittees are Annexation and ETJ, Development Character (Zoning, Platting, Building Codes, etc.), Economic Development/Redevelopment, Environment, Housing, and Transportation. Above is a link to the AirTable containing those bills and by using the search function, a bill can be easily found, with the subcommittee summary of the bill and their level of concern. There is also a link to the actual introduced bill itself, which makes it simple to look up a bill. Feel free to let us know of a bill that is not listed and should be of concern. Also, if you are aware of additional information that would be of interest to the APATX, please let us know. Finally, if you think the APATX Advocacy Committee should have a different opinion, please let us know your reasoning and we will take it into consideration. Even amongst our members there is not unanimity of opinions on certain topics which makes it difficult to develop our position.
The APATX Advocacy email is: advocate@apatexas.org
Feel free to send any comments or suggestions about legislative efforts to this email.
Below are legislative bill alerts in chronological order (most recent alert first) of bills that the Advocacy Committee feels the membership should be aware of and look into, along with a position statement on the bill and whether testimony, letters of support/opposition or emails are needed. House or Senate Committee alerts will also include links to the Committee members so APATX members can determine where they can be most effective.
Handy Links:
- Texas Legislature online - https://capitol.texas.gov/ (Has all links)2. Bill Lookup by number- https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/BillNumber.aspx3. House Committees with links to member information - https://capitol.texas.gov/Committees/CommitteesMbrs.aspx?Chamber=H4. Senate Committees with links to member information – https://capitol.texas.gov/Committees/CommitteesMbrs.aspx?Chamber=S5. Committee meeting calendars and agendas - https://capitol.texas.gov/MnuCommittees.aspx6. House and Senate calendars - https://capitol.texas.gov/MnuCalendars.aspx