Sine Die - End of 2021 Texas Session

The 2021 Texas Legislative Session has ended.  It is hard to fully articulate how unusual and chaotic this session was compared to previous sessions.  While generally viewed as the most conservative session in recent history, the action went right till the end when all of the House democrats walked out of the Capitol in opposition to a bill on voting procedures, which killed that bill, and all the ones after it, due to lack of a quorum.  Gov. Abbott has now said he will line item veto funding for the legislative branch in the budget in response to the walk out.

TMHA was successful on multiple fronts and issues, particularly our defense against bills ranging from bad bills for landlords to county land use authority.  There was a new record low for the few amounts of total bills that passed this session.

Despite the effectively shorten session and extreme difficulty to pass anything this session, TMHA was successful in a late session amendment, which defines all residential home construction, specifically manufactured housing as essential.  The law, if not vetoed, would prohibit cities or counties from being able to shut down our industry due to a disaster or pandemic.  TMHA also supported a bill that is on the governor’s desk that would prohibit any city from charging a registration fee to AC contractors.

Much more is to come with our full session recap once the veto period expires in mid-June, and we are certain of what will be new law in Texas.

And while not known when exactly, it is clear the legislature will convene much sooner than January 2023 in a special session.  Redistricting will be included in the probable fall special session, but as for what else the full scope will be we won’t know that until it is announced by Gov. Abbott.

A great many thanks to TMHA’s entire hardworking and exhausted lobby team.  We will see you again soon in the special session.