Texas Session Laws

The Texas Legislature meets for regular sessions biennially (once every two years), in odd-numbered years, for a maximum of 140 days beginning on the second Tuesday of January.

The governor, however, frequently calls special sessions of the Legislature to complete a legislative agenda.

The session laws are published sets of the laws of Texas, arranged chronologically and displayed exactly as they appeared when they were passed during each regular and special session of the Legislature.

• Recent Texas Session Laws
• Official Session Laws
• Earliest Session Laws

Recent Texas Session Laws

Vernon’s Texas Session Law Service

Located at Government Documents Service Desk, Call Number KFT1225 .W4
Library retains latest edition only, plus volumes containing appropriations bills.

During the legislative session and immediately thereafter, the most recent session laws, along with any concurrent resolutions and joint resolutions enacted into law, are available in paperback pamphlets called Vernon’s Texas Session Law Service. These are published by West, currently a part of the Thomson Legal & Regulatory market group.

These are the components of a Vernon’s session law:

1. A chapter number assigned to the statute (equivalent to the U.S. Public Law number)
2. The House or Senate bill number
3. The caption, usually taking the form “AN ACT relating to …”
4. The text of the bill (New language added to or amending an existing statute is underlined or italicized in the session laws; language being repealed is crossed through.)
5. The Vernon’s statute number to which the bill is assigned
6. Dates of passage in each chamber (includes description of the voting procedure)
7. Vote tally for each chamber, when applicable
8. Approval Date (usually when the governor signed the bill)
9. Effective Date (when the law becomes enforceable)

The Cumulative Tables of the session laws indicate whether a civil statute or a code has been amended or repealed. These tables also list new provisions and recent court orders that affect the Texas Rules of Court.

Official Session Laws

General and Special Laws of the State of Texas (1933–current)

Located in Texas Documents Third Floor Willis Library, under Call Number TxD L1800.4 G286

Earlier versions:

General laws of the State of Texas (1893-1895, 1901-1901a, 1905, 1910a, 1913a, 1914a, 1917, 1918a, 1921, 1925-1933)

Special laws of the State of Texas (1891)

Eventually, the session laws are published in a hardbound set of volumes called the General and Special Laws of Texas. These are the official session laws of Texas and are published by the Texas Secretary of State. The title refers to the fact that the laws have been passed during the general legislative sessions (the regular ones, which occur every other year) as well as during any special (i.e., extra) sessions that may have been called by the governor.

The session law service contains a cumulative index, which provides subject access to recent legislation, as well as several tables that provide quick access if one knows the bill number or the Vernon’s statute number affected by the new legislation.

Earliest Session Laws

Gammel’s Laws of Texas, 1822–1897

Located in Texas Documents Section under Call Number TxD L1800.4 G286
First 10 volumes available online from the UNT Documents Department Cybercemetery.

The earliest Texas laws are contained in a set compiled and privately published by the bookseller H.P.N. Gammel.

In 1881, after the old Capitol in Austin burned, the young Gammel gathered wet papers and charred documents from the debris scattered on the Capitol grounds, loaded them in a wagon, and took them to his home. He and his wife gradually dried the pages on clotheslines and stored them with their belongings.

Years later, Gammel sorted and edited the crinkled papers, then published them beginning in 1898 as the famous first ten volumes of Gammel’s Laws of Texas, 1822-1897.

This work won immediate acclaim, and was supplemented by additional volumes after each legislature to bring the set up to date until 1937. These later volumes are identical to the official edition of the Texas session laws (which Gammel also published), except that a title page with Gammel’s imprint is inserted at the beginning of each volume.

Gammel’s Laws consists of documents covering each congressional and legislative session, plus other significant documents, including the constitutions, select journals from the constitutional conventions, and early colonization laws.

The Government Documents Department of the University of North Texas Libraries, funded by a TexTreasures grant, has digitized the first ten volumes of Gammel’s The Laws of Texas and loaded them onto the University’s Web server to make the volumes available to researchers worldwide. The full text of these volumes can be searched by keyword or browsed by volume.

Analytical Index to the Laws of Texas, 1823–1905, Both Dates Inclusive

In Texas Documents, Third Floor Willis Library, under Call Number TxD L1800.4 G286
Available online through UNT Government Documents Cybercemetery

In 1906 Cadwell Walton Raines, a historian and former Texas state librarian who had helped Gammel compile his original ten volumes, compiled an analytical index to the first twelve volumes (although volumes 11 and 12 had not yet been printed), covering laws through the 29th Legislature.

Topics in the Analytical Index are arranged alphabetically. Each topic is followed by a list of all laws related to that topic in the order that they appear in Gammel’s Laws. Each law listed is referenced by the volume number, page number, and date of enactment.

They Analytical Index can be browsed online through the UNT Government Documents Department’s project to digitize the first ten volumes of Gammel’s Laws. In this online version, some of the most popular laws referenced in the Analytical Index are linked directly to the corresponding page in the electronic version of Gammel’s.