The bill will create an efficiency office to streamline Texas regulations, reduce unnecessary rules, and improve public access to regulatory information.
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill Wednesday aimed at streamlining state regulations and reducing unnecessary rules.
This is the first legislation signed by the governor who passed both rooms during the 89th legislative meeting.
The bill follows the Trump administration’s efforts to cut the federal government. The governor signed the bill at a ceremony in his office inside the Texas Capitol on Wednesday, joining Senate Lt. Col. Dan Patrick. House Speaker Dustin Burrows (r-lubbock)’ and two lawmakers who wrote the legislation, state Sen. Phil King (R-Weatherford) and state Sen. Giovanni Capriglione (R-Southlake).
Business leaders, including Jeff Burdett of the Texas Federation of Independent States, and Texas Business Presidents Association and CEO Glenn Hammer, also attended the signing.
The Senate Bill 14, dubbed the “Regulatory Reform and Efficiency Act,” will establish an office of efficiency at the state level, similar to Elon Musk’s Government Efficiency (DOGE) at the federal level.
Abbott said Texas’s regulatory environment is too much of a burden, and he was “shocked” when he saw a study showing that Texas has the fifth highest regulatory burden in any U.S. state.
“It will impede stricter standards with the new regulations and prevent the imposition of regulations that prove costly to do business,” Abbott said. “We’ll fully see the growth of Texas’ management.”
SB 14 aims to improve the way Texas state agencies create and implement regulations. Additionally, Abbott said cutting red tape would help the Texas economy grow.
“What this law is trying to do is make the government more efficient and reduce costs,” Abbott said. “It ensures that Texas operates at business speed and makes it easier for fellow Texans to deal with the state government.”
SB 14 will establish a Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office within the governor’s office. The governor will appoint members to the efficiency panel to oversee the streamlining of reforms and processes, consisting of business owners, researchers, state agencies and the public.
SB 14 establishes an online portal for citizens to quickly consider state regulations.
Republicans have dominated every aspect of Texas politics for over 20 years, but Abbott said the new office is no indication that Republicans have mismanaged the nation for the past 20 years.
“We want to clearly review all the agents we can trim, and how we can save money for businesses, and how we spend taxpayer money. “Texas Doge makes us more transparent than ever for all our citizens, cut most of the deficits, become as efficient as possible, attract more businesses, create more jobs, and save taxpayer money.”
The goal is to reduce the number of rules and other regulatory requirements. Burrows said he wants to eliminate unnecessary regulations, reduce training time, simplify forms, reduce fees and create more exemptions or exemptions.
“Texans deserve simple English regulations, so you can understand what they mean. They deserve to know what they are doing and make sure they are consistent and as few as possible,” Burroughs said. “What this bill is trying to do is provide an efficient regulatory framework, reducing the number of regulations, and what I believe is that we have fewer regulations, efficient and easy to understand.
Introduced by King, SB 14 passed the Senate last month and passed a new delivery of the Government Efficiency (DOGE) Committee at a Texas home before being discussed with the House of Representatives. It was one of the first legislation to accomplish that through a state commission that is tasked with investigating fraud, waste and inefficiency in the Texas government.
SB 14 limits respect for law and regulations agents. If it becomes effective, the court does not need to defer the agency’s interpretation of the law or regulations. The court may consider the position of the institution, even if it is not inconsistent with the law.
In a 6-3 ruling last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 1984 decision as Chevron, directing lower courts to postpone federal agencies if the law passed in Congress was unclear.
Under SB 14, an efficiency office will be required to create a manual for state agencies to follow to reduce the regulatory burden of Texan. Abbott said there are many regulations to be eliminated.
“I think there are fruits that are drooping everywhere. If you look at the huge amount of regulations, you know what you can and need to do,” Abbott said. “We will accelerate the process and start cutting back on ways to make governments more efficient as soon as possible.”
The Efficiency Office must submit biennial reports detailing their activities, findings and recommendations to the Governor and the Legislative Budget Committee.
Patrick noted that this was one of the earliest bill signings for a long time, and that he trusted himself with the relationship between the governor and the House Speaker. This is important considering how troublesome the relationship between the two chambers has been in recent years.
“We’re working together and working together more than any time I’ve been governor,” Abbott said Wednesday. “I think the same collaboration will penetrate and become part of both the House and Senate.”
Abbott said that once the session is over, it will go down as one of the most successful in over a decade.
