Hope in Action: Lessons from the Texas Impact Legislative Event

Hi, I’m Mary, a new intern at the IGC Institute.   

Recently, I attended the Texas United Women in Faith Legislative Event, hosted by our partners at the Texas Impact Foundation. This incredible experience centered on the theme of “Hope” and united more than 340 women from across the state. We learned about specific bills proposed in this session and their potential impact on Texas. 

The first two days of the conference were packed with powerful speakers, engaging workshops, and meaningful conversations with other women who share a passion for civics. We learned about important topics like voting, maternal and children's healthcare, immigration, education, and the environment. Through deep discussions, we explored how these key issues are shaping our state. The diversity of perspectives made for powerful discussions, but also a strong sense of unity since we all want to do what’s best for our communities.  

A highlight for me was when we paired up and practiced what we all were going to say when meeting our legislatures.  I was paired with a woman who was advocating for public schools.  She shared that both of her daughters have special needs, and it was crucial for them to be in state-funded public school. Seeing the passion and fire she had about her issue inspired me.  Talking with her reminded me as to why civic education is vital for people who want to influence policy but aren’t sure how.  

With that in mind, I want to share more basic infromation with you.  

How do you find and follow bills in the Texas Legislature? 

Did you know that more than 3,000 bills have been filed so far? Finding and following this amount of legislation can be challenging, but here’s the steps to take to do it:  

First, visit capitol.texas.gov and click “Bill Lookup” under the “Additional Searches” category. 

If you know the bill number, enter it here. For example, I care about tracking the bill on online voter registration, so I would type the bill number - HB 311. (PS HB stands for House Bill and SB stands for Senate Bill).  

Once you click the submit button, you will see that bill’s page with key information, including the author, the subjects it covers, the last action, etc.  

Now, you can track the bill’s progress.  As you can see in the photos provided above there are six tabs available- history, text, actions, authors, captions, and bill stages.  The screenshot shown is the history tab of the bill.  To track the bills progress, click on the bill stages tabs and it will take you to the following page: 

 If you care about a topic, but don’t know the bills associated with it, go to the Text Search link on the Home page. 

 It will then bring you to a page that looks like this: 

Say you want to look up a bill about voting; you will type “voting” in the exact phrase box.  After submitting your search, it will bring you to a page with all the bills that has voting as an exact phrase within the bill.

 From here you can scroll through and find the specific bill you are trying to look for. 

I gained valuable insights into specific bills and their progression through the legislative office, understanding the intricate steps they must go through before becoming law. This knowledge equipped me with a clearer perspective on the legislative process and the importance of each stage.   

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