Many new bills passed during the 88th Texas Legislative Sessions will go into effect on September 1st, 2023. A total of 774 bills and individual sections from 19 additional bills are scheduled to become law on this date.  

A number of laws have already gone into effect or are scheduled to go into effect at a later date. We may see additional bills passed by this legislature if Governor Greg Abbott calls more legislative sessions before the 89th Legislature convenes in 2025. 

Where Can I Read the New Laws?

The new Texas laws are freely available online. You can view new bills by the date on which they take effect by visiting the Bill Effective Dates page on the Legislative Reference Library of Texas (LRL) website.

If you want to see how a particular existing Texas statute or code will be affected by new legislation, LRL's Index to Sections Affected tool can be very helpful. Researchers can use it to find new bills that amend, add, or repeal a section of the Texas codes.

If you’re researching a particular bill in more depth, you might appreciate the more detailed Search Tools on the Texas Legislature Online (TLO) website.

What Are the New Laws?

The new legislation covers a wide area of interests, with almost 800 new laws taking effect. Several news outlets have published legislative session recaps to highlight important bills that might affect many Texans:

• New Texas laws that take effect on Sept. 1, 2023 by KSAT
• New Texas Laws 2023 by The Texas Tribune

More legislative summaries for the 88th session can be found on the Legislative Recaps page. We’ll have additional updates on this page shortly, so keep an eye out!

Don’t hesitate to reach out if you need any assistance with your legislative research! You can find us via e-mail or by telephone through the Ask a Librarian page.