Bill Facts
Legislation Filed & Passed
The following table provides a summary comparison of legislative bill activity from the 80th and 79th Regular Sessions.
| 80th Legislative Session | 79th Legislative Session | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Filed | Passed | % | Filed | Passed | % |
| HBs | 4140 | 955 | 23.1% | 3592 | 876 | 24.4% |
| HJRs | 108 | 10 | 9.3% | 102 | 5 | 4.9% |
| SBs | 2050 | 526 | 25.7% | 1892 | 512 | 27.1% |
| SJRs | 64 | 7 | 10.9% | 43 | 4 | 9.3% |
| TOTAL | 6362 | 1498 | 23.5% | 5629 | 1397 | 24.8% |
Bill Analysis Task Force
A legislative session requires the highest and best efforts of enormous numbers of the A&M System institutions’ faculty, administration, and staff. In addition, because the Texas Legislature meets regularly only 140 days every other year, a session necessarily operates on its own highly compressed clock and takes no prisoners when it demands responses from institutions. One of the principal instruments we have created to respond to the demands of a session is the Bill Analysis Task Force (BATF). The BATF provides a timely synopsis of all legislation that affects the A&M System member universities and agencies. These analyses of key bills are provided to the Chancellor, his Executive Officers, System CEOs and the Governmental Relations Team, so that they will be better prepared to furnish information to and communicate the A&M System’s legislative program to the legislature and governor during the fast-paced session. Of note, all the BATF members serve voluntarily and take on these extra duties while continuing to carry out their regular duties, and without extra compensation.
This session the Office of Governmental Relations tracked and kept watch over some 1,500 plus bills, about 24% of all the bills that were filed. The Task Force members provided in-depth analyses for more than 700 of these tracked bills.
Without the support and assistance of all the individuals who serve the Bill Analysis Task Force, the Texas A&M University System would not have been able to provide legislators and their staff the information they required during the session.
The names and affiliation of members of the Bill Analysis Task Force may be found in the Appendix.