Legislation: batch D — NY OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TX UT

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

legislation/us/states/tx/89r/sb-965.md

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+---
+type: "Bill"
+title: "Relating to the right of a public school employee to engage in religious speech or prayer while on duty."
+description: "Relating to the right of a public school employee to engage in religious speech or prayer while on duty."
+jurisdiction: "us/states/tx"
+legislature: "Texas Legislature"
+session: "89R"
+identifier: "SB 965"
+citation: "Texas SB 965 (89R)"
+classification: ["bill"]
+subjects: ["Education--Primary & Secondary--General (I0230)", "Religion (I0646)"]
+status: "enacted"
+primary_sponsors: ["Bettencourt", "Campbell", "Creighton", "Hall", "Hinojosa, Adam", "Kolkhorst", "Leach", "Middleton", "Parker", "Paxton"]
+version_count: 5
+action_count: 59
+vote_count: 6
+first_action: "2025-01-29"
+last_action: "2025-06-20"
+source: "openstates"
+source_identifier: "ocd-bill/0fa573f8-e0e0-42ff-8425-a8a0aaac6dce"
+source_url: "ftp://ftp.legis.state.tx.us/bills/89R/billhistory/senate_bills/SB00900_SB00999/SB 965.xml"
+source_hash: "57b256b4da30d8ac20210d448c256f406e6425d7d7b3854ca7a49f67dbeb9ad3"
+vintage: "2026-07-01"
+source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
+retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
+confidence: "reported"
+tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-tx"]
+---
+
+# Texas SB 965 (89R) — Relating to the right of a public school employee to engage in religious speech or prayer while on duty.
+
+## Version chain
+
+The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.
+
+1. **Introduced** (filed) — [source](http://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/html/SB00965I.HTM)
+2. **Engrossed** (committee substitute) — [source](http://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/html/SB00965E.HTM)
+3. **House Committee Report** (committee substitute) — [source](http://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/html/SB00965H.HTM)
+4. **Senate Committee Report** (committee substitute) — [source](http://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/html/SB00965S.HTM)
+5. **Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](http://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/html/SB00965F.HTM)
+
+## Votes
+
+- passage — **20–11** (pass) · upper
+- passage — **20–11** (pass) · upper
+- passage — **20–11** (pass) · upper
+- other — **11–20** (fail) · upper
+- passage — **86–48** (pass) · lower
+- passage — **84–52** (pass) · lower
+
+## Sponsors
+
+- Bettencourt — primary (person)
+- Campbell — primary (person)
+- Creighton — primary (person)
+- Hall — primary (person)
+- Hinojosa, Adam — primary (person)
+- Kolkhorst — primary (person)
+- Leach — primary (person)
+- Middleton — primary (person)
+- Parker — primary (person)
+- Paxton — primary (person)
+- Alders — cosponsor (person)
+- Bonnen — cosponsor (person)
+- Buckley — cosponsor (person)
+- Cain — cosponsor (person)
+- Capriglione — cosponsor (person)
+- Cook — cosponsor (person)
+- Curry — cosponsor (person)
+- DeAyala — cosponsor (person)
+- Dorazio — cosponsor (person)
+- Flores — cosponsor (person)
+- Harrison — cosponsor (person)
+- Hefner — cosponsor (person)
+- Hickland — cosponsor (person)
+- Hopper — cosponsor (person)
+- Hull — cosponsor (person)
+- Isaac — cosponsor (person)
+- Kerwin — cosponsor (person)
+- King — cosponsor (person)
+- LaHood — cosponsor (person)
+- Leo Wilson — cosponsor (person)
+- Little — cosponsor (person)
+- Lozano — cosponsor (person)
+- McLaughlin — cosponsor (person)
+- Metcalf — cosponsor (person)
+- Morgan — cosponsor (person)
+- Noble — cosponsor (person)
+- Olcott — cosponsor (person)
+- Oliverson — cosponsor (person)
+- Patterson — cosponsor (person)
+- Paul — cosponsor (person)
+- Pierson — cosponsor (person)
+- Schatzline — cosponsor (person)
+- Shaheen — cosponsor (person)
+- Slawson — cosponsor (person)
+- Spiller — cosponsor (person)
+- Swanson — cosponsor (person)
+- Troxclair — cosponsor (person)
+- Vasut — cosponsor (person)
+- Virdell — cosponsor (person)
+- Wharton — cosponsor (person)
+
+## Timeline
+
+The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.
+
+- **2025-01-29** Received by the Secretary of the Senate `filing, introduction`
+- **2025-01-29** Filed `filing`
+- **2025-02-13** Read first time `introduction, reading-1`
+- **2025-02-13** Referred to State Affairs `referral-committee`
+- **2025-03-03** Scheduled for public hearing on . . .
+- **2025-03-03** Considered in public hearing
+- **2025-03-03** Testimony taken in committee
+- **2025-03-03** Left pending in committee
+- **2025-03-13** Considered in public hearing
+- **2025-03-13** Vote taken in committee
+- **2025-03-17** Reported favorably w/o amendments `committee-passage-favorable`
+- **2025-03-17** Recommended for local & uncontested calendar
+- **2025-03-17** Committee report printed and distributed
+- **2025-03-24** Co-author authorized
+- **2025-03-24** Placed on intent calendar
+- **2025-04-01** Co-author authorized
+- **2025-04-01** Rules suspended-Regular order of business
+- **2025-04-01** Record vote
+- **2025-04-01** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
+- **2025-04-01** Amendment(s) offered `amendment-introduction`
+- **2025-04-01** Amendment fails of adoption `amendment-failure`
+- **2025-04-01** Record vote
+- **2025-04-01** Passed to engrossment
+- **2025-04-01** Record vote
+- **2025-04-01** Rules suspended-Regular order of business
+- **2025-04-01** Record vote
+- **2025-04-01** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
+- **2025-04-01** Passed `passage`
+- **2025-04-01** Record vote
+- **2025-04-01** Reported engrossed
+- **2025-04-02** Received from the Senate `introduction`
+- **2025-04-09** Read first time `introduction, reading-1`
+- **2025-04-09** Referred to State Affairs `referral-committee`
+- **2025-05-12** Considered in public hearing
+- **2025-05-12** Testimony taken/registration(s) recorded in committee
+- **2025-05-12** Left pending in committee
+- **2025-05-12** Considered in formal meeting
+- **2025-05-12** Reported favorably w/o amendment(s) `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
+- **2025-05-14** Comte report filed with Committee Coordinator `filing`
+- **2025-05-14** Committee report distributed
+- **2025-05-15** Committee report sent to Calendars
+- **2025-05-19** Considered in Calendars
+- **2025-05-21** Placed on General State Calendar
+- **2025-05-22** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
+- **2025-05-22** Point of order withdrawn `withdrawal`
+- **2025-05-22** Passed to 3rd reading
+- **2025-05-22** Record vote
+- **2025-05-22** Statement(s) of vote recorded in Journal
+- **2025-05-23** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
+- **2025-05-23** Passed `passage`
+- **2025-05-23** Record vote
+- **2025-05-23** Statement(s) of vote recorded in Journal
+- **2025-05-23** House passage reported `passage`
+- **2025-05-23** Reported enrolled `enrolled`
+- **2025-05-26** Signed in the Senate `passage`
+- **2025-05-26** Signed in the House `passage`
+- **2025-05-27** Sent to the Governor `executive-receipt`
+- **2025-06-20** Signed by the Governor `executive-signature`
+- **2025-06-20** Effective on 9/1/25 `became-law`
+
+## Source
+
+OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/0fa573f8-e0e0-42ff-8425-a8a0aaac6dce`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Texas legislature records).
+