Today is the last chance for Texas legislators to file their bills at the State Capitol. Marking 60 days of session, this 7pm deadline will prevent filing of most new bills and set the stage for the remaining 80 days while the Legislature is active. As of March 8, the Legislature contained 5,183 filed bills, composed of 3,565 in the House and 1,618 in the Senate.
The total number of bills filed at this point in the session is up 9.9 percent from what it was two years ago during the 84th session, according to data from the Legislative Reference Library. More than 470 bills were filed in the first seven hours of pre-filing on Nov. 14th. As of Feb. 23rd 1,838 bills were referred to committee and 35 were scheduled for a hearing.
