Patterns

The bill creates no duty, no penalty, no agency and no deadline. It states a position and changes nothing.

Receipt: The operative section, with no shall, no penalty and no date in it.

Checked at the filing stage.

The bill restates conduct the Penal Code or another statute already covers.

Receipt: The new offense next to the existing section it duplicates.

Checked at the filing stage.

An exception lets the realistic main case through the ban. It need not be written as wide as the ban to defeat the promise.

Receipt: The ban and the exception, quoted together.

Checked at the filing stage.

Action is deferred to a body that reports later, usually after the next election.

Receipt: The section that creates the body and the date its report is due.

Checked at the filing stage.

Population brackets or other filters that target one county, city or district while the caption reads statewide.

Receipt: The bracket, with the one place it fits.

Checked at the filing stage.

One industry, one license class or one named entity gets the benefit or the exemption.

Receipt: The clause that names or defines the beneficiary.

Checked at the filing stage.

The bill creates a fee, a dedicated fund, a board, or seats someone appoints.

Receipt: The section that creates it and who appoints.

Checked at the filing stage.

The bill renames, designates, commemorates or declares, and nothing else.

Receipt: The whole operative text.

Checked at the filing stage.

Filed in prior sessions and died there. Same caption, same author or the same shop.

Receipt: The prior bill numbers and where each one stopped.

Not tested yet

The relating-to line is narrower or broader than what the body does.

Receipt: The caption next to the section it does not describe.

Checked at the filing stage.

The effective date, the sunset or the first deadline lands after the next election.

Receipt: The effective-date section.

Checked at the filing stage.

The fiscal note cost does not match what the caption sells.

Receipt: The fiscal note line and the caption.

Not tested yet

The witness list shows who registered for and against, and it is an industry, not the public.

Receipt: The witness list entries.

Not tested yet

The author's donors sit in the industry the bill helps.

Receipt: The TEC contribution rows, with employer and amount.

Not tested yet

The ban reaches further than the pitch. A definition sweeps people or conduct into a ban beyond the target the caption names.

Receipt: The definitions section quoted next to the caption.

Checked at the filing stage.