Bill Filing for the 90th Texas Legislature Opens Today, With the New Lieutenant Governor's Powers Already in Question
Monday is the first day members and members-elect can file bills for the session that convenes January 12 — and in the Senate, where Republicans kept 19 of 31 seats, a rules fight over how much power Lt. Gov.-elect Vikki Goodwin will actually hold has started before the first bill lands.
AUSTIN — The 90th Texas Legislature began, on paper, Monday morning. November 9 is the first day legislators and legislators-elect may file bills for the coming session under the House and Senate rules, according to the Texas Legislative Council's official calendar — the first hard deadline of the post-election era at the Capitol, two blocks from this newsroom.
The session itself convenes on January 12, 2027, and the early filings are read at the Capitol as the first hard evidence of each party's priorities after an election that flipped the governor's office, the lieutenant governor's office and the Texas House, while Republicans held the Senate, 19 seats to 12.
That split is why the session's first fight may be over the rulebook itself. Lt. Gov.-elect Vikki Goodwin, who defeated Dan Patrick and is the first Democrat elected to the office since 1998, inherits powers — committee assignments, bill referrals, control of the floor — that come largely from Senate rules rather than the state constitution, KXAN reported. A simple majority of senators could rewrite those rules and shift the power balance before a single bill is heard.
Quorum Report editor Scott Braddock said Republican senators met this week to discuss the question; no changes have been formally adopted. The Texas Desk will follow the filings as they post — the bill numbers filed in the coming days are the session's first draft of itself.
