Gov. Abbott Calls 2nd Special Session | Aug. 15, 2025

The first Special Session of the 89th Texas Legislature came to a close August 15, 2025, as both chambers adjourned sine die, but Governor Greg Abbott immediately called for a second Special Session to begin at noon August 15. 

Many of the items Governor Abbott directed the legislature to address are actions that were not taken in the first Special Session. Legislation he's directing them to consider includes: 

• Ensuring and enhancing youth camp safety; 
• Improving early warming systems and other preparedness infrastructure in flood-prone ares of Texas; 
• Strengthening emergency communication and other response infrastructure in flood-prone areas of Texas; 
• Providing relief funding for response to and recovery from the July 2025 storms that struck Central Texas; 
• Evaluating and streamlining rules and regulations to speed preparedness and recovery from natural disasters; 
• Eliminating the STAAR test and replacing it with effective tools to assess student progress and ensure school district accountability; 
• Reducing property tax burdens on Texans and legislation imposing spending limits on entities authorized to impose property taxes; 
• Making it a crime to provide hemp-derived products to children under 18; 
• Regulating hemp-derived products; 
• Further protecting unborn children and their months from the harm of abortion; 
• Prohibiting taxpayer-funded lobbying, including the use of tax dollars to hire lobbyists and payment of tax dollars to associations that lobby the legislature; 
• Protecting victims of human trafficking from criminal liability for non-violent acts closely tied to their own victimization; 
• Protecting law enforcement officers from public disclosure of unsubstantiated complaints in personnel files; 
• Protecting women's privacy in sex-segregated spaces; 
• Strengthening the Attorney General's authority to investigate and prosecute state election crimes; 
• Providing a congressional redistricting plan; 
• Strengthening protections against title theft and deed fraud; 
• Authorizing political subdivisions to reduce impact fees for builders who include water conservation and efficiency measures; and 
• Addressing the operation and administration of the Judicial Department of state government. 

The 16th item on that list brought the first Special Session to a standstill after Texas House Democrats left the state to prevent a quorum on a vote to redraw the state's U.S. congressional maps to more favorably benefit Republican candidates.