Data centers & private property
Lawmakers are studying the effects of rapidly growing large electrical loads: including data centers, on electric infrastructure, communities, water infrastructure, landowners and private property.
Legislative Watch
Texas Homestead Legislative Watch
Texas homestead law does not stand still. Each legislative session can bring new bills affecting residence homestead exemptions: property tax notices, appraisal rules, deed fraud protections, disabled veteran exemptions, surviving spouse rights, rural land ownership, and disaster recovery. We monitor official Texas legislative sources and summarize selected bills in plain English for educational purposes.
One bill = one public card
Reviewed before publishing
Educational only, not legal advice
Resource, Not Legislation
Search Texas Legislation
Search Texas Legislature Online by bill number, author, sponsor, subject, committee, or legislative action. Bill numbers are reused in different legislative sessions, so always confirm both the bill number and the legislative session.
Search Bills by Author, Sponsor, Subject, or Bill Number
Permanent Guide, Not Legislation
Texas Eminent Domain: What Landowners Need to Know
Several watched subjects: condemnation, easements, land acquisition for water and infrastructure, connect to one permanent resource: our plain-language guide to the Texas condemnation process: bona fide offers, special commissioners, compensation, deadlines, and repurchase rights under current law.
Read the Texas Eminent Domain guideTexas Legislature, In Real Time
Follow Texas legislative activity affecting homesteads: property rights, agricultural land, water, energy, rural communities, veterans, and development. Texas Homestead Law connects Texans directly to official legislative records, hearings, broadcasts, and public participation resources.
Live from the Texas Capitol
Follow official Texas legislative activity as it is published, including bills, committee meetings, calendars, analyses, fiscal notes and passed legislation.
Official source: Texas Legislature Online. The last synchronization time is shown on the Capitol Live page.
Texas Homestead Law is a nonpartisan educational resource. Inclusion here does not indicate support for or opposition to legislation, policies, officials, projects, or organizations.
Legislature status
We do not display a live in-session indicator, because a status published here could be wrong within the hour. Check the chamber directly.
Texas House
Session status, daily calendars and floor activity.
Check Current House Status Official Texas Source (opens in a new tab)Texas Senate
Session status, calendars and floor activity.
Check Current Senate Status Official Texas Source (opens in a new tab)Texas Legislature Online
Bills, committee meetings, calendars and the official record.
Open Texas Legislature Online Official Texas Source (opens in a new tab)Upcoming hearings
Committee meetings posted by the Texas House and Senate whose subject areas often touch property, land, water, agriculture, energy, veterans and rural Texas. A committee appearing here does not mean every one of its meetings concerns these topics, always read the official notice.
Filter hearings by topic
New watch topics: Native American / Tribal Affairs · Nuclear / Uranium covering HB 14 implementation, TANEO and TANDF, advanced-reactor licensing, uranium and groundwater restoration, radioactive waste, spent-fuel litigation, and federal tribal-consultation matters affecting Texas land.
Nuclear and uranium watch subjects: Texas Advanced Nuclear Energy Office; Texas Advanced Nuclear Development Fund; Texas Health & Safety Code Chapter 401; high-level radioactive waste; spent nuclear fuel; HB 4112 implementation; NRC Texas licensing proceedings; Texas advanced reactor siting; nuclear and data-center power projects; Pantex; Texas A&M RELLIS; Permian Basin advanced nuclear projects; the Victoria gas-plus-nuclear project; and the Haskell County microreactor proposal. We have also flagged the December 1, 2026 TANEO and PUCT regulatory-functions report for review when released. Nuclear Energy & Radiation
Topic labels are assigned by Texas Homestead Law to help you scan. They are not an official legislative classification.
From the Texas Capitol
Texas Legislature Online publishes official RSS feeds and email alerts for legislative activity, committee meetings: calendars, bills filed, bill text, fiscal notes, bill analyses and passed bills. Those feeds are the authoritative record, and subscribing to them directly is faster and more complete than any summary we could publish.
How this works here: the hearing list above is a locally stored snapshot with a visible last-checked date, not a live connection. We do not route your visit through a third-party feed service, and nothing about your visit is sent anywhere to build it.
What Texas is studying now
What is an interim charge?
Between regular legislative sessions, Texas legislative committees may be directed to study specific issues. These interim charges can lead to recommendations and future legislation, but an interim charge is not itself a bill and does not change Texas law.
This is the single most common source of confusion we see. An idea being studied in 2026 is not a rule you have to follow in 2026.
Current Law
In effect now. You are subject to it today.
Interim Study
A committee has been asked to look at a subject. Nothing has changed.
Proposed, Not Law
A bill exists but has not been enacted. It may never be.
Hearing Scheduled
A meeting is posted. Testimony may be taken. No decision has been made.
2026 Senate interim charges relevant to Texas landowners
Summarised in plain language from the official interim charge documents. Read the originals before relying on any of it.
Transmission lines & landowner rights
The Legislature is examining high-capacity transmission infrastructure, including 765-kV lines, and the issues that come with it: routing, cost allocation, effects on landowners, homes and businesses, long-term land use and private property impacts.
Property taxes & homestead exemptions
Committees have been directed to study additional property tax reductions and possible future changes involving homestead exemptions and related property tax policy. None of this has changed what you owe. For what the law actually provides today, use the current exemption guidance.
Wind & solar decommissioning
The committee is examining what happens at the end of a renewable project's life: financial assurance, end-of-life obligations: site remediation, recycling and disposal, landowner protection, and whether existing requirements do enough to keep decommissioning costs off the landowner.
Data centers & water
The committee is studying the water demands associated with data centers and other energy-intensive development, and the possible impact on existing users, including agricultural producers and Texas residents.
Data center tax incentives
Lawmakers are reviewing the state tax incentives and exemptions available to qualifying data centers, and their fiscal impacts.
Interim charge summaries checked against the official documents on August 9, 2026. Additional charges were issued to the Texas Senate on July 27, 2026, see the official announcement for those.
Watch the Texas Legislature
You do not have to rely solely on headlines or summaries to understand what happened in a legislative hearing. Texas House and Senate proceedings are available to the public, including many archived committee hearings.
Watch House LiveWatch on Texas House (opens in a new tab)
House Committee ArchivesArchived committee hearings, including Land & Resource Management, Natural Resources, Agriculture & Livestock and Energy Resources (opens in a new tab)
Watch Senate LiveWatch on Texas Senate (opens in a new tab)
Senate Audio/Video ArchivesArchived Senate proceedings and committee hearings (opens in a new tab)
The House and Senate archives remain the authoritative record. We link to them rather than copying them.
Bills we're tracking
Every card shows the jurisdiction (Texas or Federal), the bill or resolution number, the legislative session or Congress, the author or sponsor, the final or current status, the effective date when applicable, and an official source link. Enacted Texas laws, voter-approved constitutional amendments: failed proposals, and federal bills still moving through Congress are labeled distinctly, a failed or pending proposal never carries enacted-law styling. Entries below were last verified July 21, 2026.
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Resource, Not Legislation
Current Agricultural Disaster Resources
Federal disaster designations and USDA assistance programs can change throughout the year. Eligibility depends on the producer, county, loss, program year, documentation, and applicable filing deadline. Verify current information with the USDA Farm Service Agency before relying on a deadline or benefit description. These programs and designations are not legislation. Last verified: July 21, 2026.
USDA disaster designations for Texas
On April 23, 2026, USDA designated 132 Texas counties as primary natural disaster areas due to qualifying drought, a Secretarial designation that makes Farm Service Agency emergency loans available to eligible producers in primary and contiguous counties. USDA has issued additional Texas designations since that date, so the current county list and each designation's application deadline must be confirmed through the official designation notices, do not rely on a static county total or map.
USDA disaster assistance programs
Designation in a county does not mean every producer in that county automatically qualifies, each program has its own eligibility rules, records requirements, and deadlines.
ELAP and livestock water hauling
Producers seeking ELAP assistance for livestock water transportation should preserve contemporaneous records: including dates, mileage, transportation method, gallons hauled, livestock numbers, receipts, invoices, photographs, maps, and evidence of normal watering practices. Requirements and deadlines can vary by program year, so contact the local FSA office promptly after a loss becomes apparent. Notice-of-loss and application deadlines, eligible costs, and required forms are set by current FSA program rules, confirm them with your FSA office rather than relying on a summary.
Editorial Method
How we decide what to publish
Texas Legislature Online search results often show the same bill many times: introduced, engrossed, enrolled, committee reports, fiscal notes, and action history. We collapse every version into a single record, review the current status, and only then decide whether to publish.
01
Official sources first
Texas Legislature Online, MyTLO alerts: RSS feeds, bill text, bill history, actions, analyses, fiscal notes, and committee reports.
02
One bill, one card
Multiple TLO versions collapse into one internal history trail. The public page shows one card per bill.
03
Homeowner-relevance filter
We categorize by homeowner or landowner relevance and skip bills that don't touch homestead, taxes, deeds, land, or family transitions.
04
Reviewed before publishing
Nothing auto-publishes. Each summary is reviewed against the current bill text and linked back to the official TLO record.
Related topic pages
Where bills fit into the bigger picture
Topic Page
Deed Fraud & Property Theft
Why homeowners should monitor county deed records and appraisal-district accounts, including SB 16.
Topic Page
Property Tax Notices & Appraisal Transparency
What the notices from your taxing units and appraisal district actually mean, including HB 17.
Topic Page
Ag, Timber & Rural Land
Homestead vs. agricultural/timber exemptions: open-space appraisal, and rural land issues, including the unsuccessful HJR 31 (89R) and HJR 21 (89(2)) proposals concerning definitions used for the farm-products property-tax exemption.
Who represents you?
Knowing who represents you provides a direct path to the officials participating in the Texas legislative process.
The State of Texas runs the official lookup. It identifies your Texas Senator, your Texas House Representative, your U.S. Senators, your U.S. House Representative and your State Board of Education member. You can search by address, city, ZIP code or county.
We deliberately do not build this ourselves. Texas Homestead Law does not ask for, proxy or store your address. The button below hands you straight to the official State of Texas service.
Contacting your Texas legislator
Once you identify your Texas Senator or Representative, their official legislative page provides current Capitol and district office contact information.
Texas Senator, mailing address
The Honorable [Name]Texas Senate
P.O. Box 12068
Austin, Texas 78711-2068
Texas Representative, mailing address
The Honorable [Name]Texas House of Representatives
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, Texas 78768-2910
When contacting a legislative office
- Identify yourself as a constituent when applicable.
- Include your city or county.
- Identify the specific bill, hearing, project or issue.
- Explain briefly how the issue affects you, your family, property, farm, ranch, business or community.
- State your question or requested action clearly.
- Remain concise and respectful.
- Keep a copy of written correspondence.
This is civic participation guidance, not advocacy. We do not supply scripts, positions or talking points, and we do not suggest what you should ask for.
How Texans can participate
The Legislature is one venue among several. Many decisions that affect land and property happen at agencies: in county offices, or in local hearings, each with its own notice and comment process.
Check Upcoming HearingsCommittee meetings relevant to land and property
Watch the LegislatureLive proceedings and committee archives
Find My RepresentativesOfficial State of Texas lookup (opens in a new tab)
Find My CountyAppraisal district, county clerk, tax assessor-collector
Track a BillMyTLO alerts and official RSS feeds (opens in a new tab)
How Public Notice WorksRecovery action plans, comment periods and official deadlines
Track legislation yourself with MyTLO
Texas Legislature Online already provides free tools that do this better than any third-party tracker. A MyTLO account lets you track bills: build bill lists, receive bill and meeting alerts, subscribe to RSS feeds and save searches.
We are not building a competing account system. Our job is to make sure you know these tools exist.
Texas legislative news & context
Secondary sources, not the official record
News coverage and organizational analysis can provide additional context but are not the official source for legislative status. Texas Homestead Law verifies bill and hearing status against official Texas government sources.
Reporting and analysis on Texas legislative subjects comes from a range of outlets and organizations, the Legislative Reference Library's current-issue and clipping resources, statewide and local Texas newspapers, and subject-matter and professional organizations among them. We do not privilege any single publication or viewpoint, and we do not reproduce their articles.
Whenever a news article references a bill, hearing, interim charge or agency action, trace it back to the official Texas source before relying on it. A story saying something “passed” or is “now required” is not the record. Texas Legislature Online is.
Looking for county resources?
Property taxes, appraisal districts, county records, and many local land matters are handled outside the Texas Legislature.