AUSTIN, Texas — Speaker of the Texas House Dustin Burrows today released the following statement after the House’s passage of two priority government efficiency bills—the Texas Regulatory Reform and Efficiency Act (HB 10/SB 14) by Representative Giovanni Capriglione and House Bill 12 by Representative Keith Bell.

“Government efficiency is a driving theme of the session, and these bills will serve as powerful tools to eliminate burdensome regulations across state government and promote growth and innovation for businesses,” said Speaker Burrows. “I’m proud of the leadership shown by Rep. Capriglione, Rep. Bell, and the entire DOGE committee on tackling these issues and to have led the House in passing these priorities today. Texans deserve a government that works as hard as they do—this legislation meets that objective and will keep Texas the nation’s bellwether for economic opportunity and freedom.”

Highlights of HB 10, the companion to Senate Bill 14:

• Creates the Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office to eliminate outdated, costly, and burdensome state government regulations
• Supports agencies in reducing rules and analyzing the cost and impact of rules before they are adopted
• Creates a user-friendly database allowing the public to search agency rules by topic or related industry
• Requires proposed rules to be written in clear, plain language with a justification for their purpose
• Ensures that state agencies properly conduct impact statements for each proposed rule
• Clarifies legal standards to let courts do their jobs and interpret state laws without improperly deferring to state agencies’ interpretations

Having passed in both chambers, the Regulatory Reform and Efficiency Act is the first bill of the session to be sent to Governor Greg Abbott’s desk to be signed into law.

Highlights of HB 12:

• Improves the state’s Sunset review process of state agencies by increasing public participation
• Establishes a new, midcycle Sunset review of agency rulemaking to identify overly burdensome regulations between full Sunset reviews
• Creates a new third-party efficiency audit system to provide ongoing oversight over the use of agency resources, identify waste and savings opportunities, and require agencies to submit formal plans to implement audit recommendations.

House Bill 12 received unanimous support of the Texas House.