Inside the Texas Legislative Interim
This is a preview of our Texas 2036 newsletter providing a look inside the legislative interim. To receive this weekly look at our work, sign up here.
The Texas Legislature Never Really Stops
Primary elections are over. School’s out. There’s no legislative session this year — but Texas state government doesn’t stop.
Legislative committees are holding hearings right now and shaping the debates that will define the 2027 session. Texas 2036 is at the table with research, testimony and the long-range data lawmakers will need.
What’s An Interim Charge?
Think of an interim charge as the Legislature’s homework assignment.
Between sessions, the lieutenant governor issues Senate committees one set of study topics; the House speaker directs House committees with another.
The hearings that follow rarely make the news, but the evidence gathered, the experts heard and the questions asked often land in bill language the following session.
✅ For the full list of interim charges, click here and here.
👉 We’ll be at the hearings as committees take up their charges, bringing data, testimony and the long view of where Texas is headed.
5 Issue Areas We’re Watching This Interim
These five themes run through both chambers’ charge lists, and they’re where Texas 2036 will be most engaged this interim.
1. Water Infrastructure
Texas’ population is growing faster than its water supply. The infrastructure gap is widening, and we’re putting numbers on what closing it will actually take.
We’re watching:
- Regional planning and long-term supply projections
- Long-term capacity of state financial assistance programs
- Dedicated funding to the Texas Water Fund and associated oversight
2. Healthcare Affordability
Texas families and employers pay more for healthcare than almost anywhere in the country. We’re focused on what’s actually driving those costs and which reforms would move them.
We’re watching:
- Facility fees and price transparency
- Cost drivers like market consolidation and vertical integration
- The rising costs to teachers for health insurance coverage
3. Education and Workforce
The question we keep coming back to: are Texas students leaving school with skills employers actually need, and is the state keeping up?
We’re watching:
- Middle school reading and math outcomes
- Enrollment shifts and how that impacts school decision-making
- Quicker, better credentials that lead to jobs employers are hiring for
4. Artificial Intelligence
AI will reshape Texas industries. The real questions are which jobs change, which credentials matter and whether Texas workers will be ready.
We’re watching:
- Workforce impact and economic competitiveness
- Upskilling and employer demand
- AI in healthcare: safety, access and efficiency
- Technology in Texas schools
5. Insurance and Housing Costs
Premiums are quietly making Texas less affordable, adding thousands a year to the cost of owning a home in many parts of the state.
We’re watching:
- What’s driving property and casualty premium increases
- Impacts on home affordability
The Other Big Interim Story: Sunset
Most people have never heard of it, but the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission may be the Legislature’s most powerful oversight tool. State agencies don’t run forever. They expire on a schedule unless the Legislature reauthorizes them, and Sunset is the review process in between. (Full explainer here)
By the numbers: 16 agencies are under review ahead of the 2027 session. The last cycle saved Texas more than $135 million over five years.
On the list: Health and Human Services Commission, Department of State Health Services, Department of Family and Protective Services, Texas Juvenile Justice Department, and 12 others.
Two we’re watching:
- Texas Workforce Commission (TWC): manages workforce development and employment services, administers programs such as childcare and other support services, oversees the unemployment insurance program and enforces labor laws. This review lets lawmakers ask whether the agency’s structure, programs and data tools are serving Texas employers and workers.
- Texas Workforce Investment Council (TWIC): housed in the Governor’s Office, runs strategic planning and evaluation for the entire Texas workforce system.
Why it matters: Done right, these reviews could mean more timely and relevant workforce data that is not only connected across state agencies, but accessible and available for students and jobseekers as well as employers and the business community.
The kind that helps a high schooler in Lubbock see which local careers are growing and what credentials they require. Or helps a laid-off worker in Houston find training tied to current job openings.
Two Things Shaping the Interim
A slower-growing Texas: Texas added 391,243 residents last year, more than any other state, but well below the 600,000-plus peak. The slowdown is driven mostly by a 48% drop in international migration.
👉 That slowdown has a significant impact on some of this interim’s biggest charges. School funding formulas, healthcare capacity, water planning and infrastructure investment all assume faster growth than Texas is now experiencing.
📺 Click here to watch Texas 2036 Vice President of Data and Research Dr. Tracy Ayrhart talk about three big demographic trends in Texas.
The budget picture: In preparing for next session, budget writers are closely monitoring how economic and political trends will affect Texas’ revenue outlook over the next few years.
Sales tax collections, comprising nearly 60% of state tax revenues, were strong in April, growing nearly 10% over last year. However, other indicators slightly moderate this optimism: the Dallas Fed expects job growth around 1.2% in 2026, well below the historical 2% pace.
The next session will test how lawmakers balance the commitments made in the previous two sessions with new priorities in education, workforce, healthcare and water.
What to watch: This fall, state agencies submit Legislative Appropriations Requests (LARs), the budget proposals that frame the starting point for next session’s debate. Each LAR names priorities, proposed funding changes and the “exceptional items” agencies are pushing for beyond their baseline. Texas 2036 will follow the process closely and testify at the fall hearings.