The 2025 Legislative Session officially concluded on June 2, 2025, wrapping up 140-days of activity on issues that directly impact Texas’ small businesses. 

Throughout the session, NFIB tracked more than 200 pieces of legislation—the good, the bad, and the ugly. We killed many bad bills and successfully passed most of our priority legislation.  

REGISTER TODAY to join us for our Virtual Legislative Session Recap on Wednesday, June 25, 2025.

We also had a very successful Small Business Day with more than 100 NFIB small business owners and sponsors at our event.  House Speaker Dustin Burrows, who is also an NFIB member, spoke to our members about the importance of engagement at the Capitol. I appreciate all the involvement of those who attended. 

Here are a few legislative highlights from the session: 

SECURING MUCH-NEEDED INVENTORY TAX RELIEF
NFIB led the effort to pass HB 9 (Meyer/Bettencourt) to increase the business personal property tax (also known as “inventory tax”) exemption from $2,500 to $125,000!  The inventory tax applies to anything used in one’s business, including inventory, furniture, machinery, supplies, and more – regardless of whether a business nets a profit. We pulled out all the stops to get this across the line, including a heavy lobby effort, committee testimony, and a media issue campaign.  

This proposal will now head to voters for approval on the November ballot.  When approved, this will result in annual tax savings of $500 million! 

CUTTING REGULATORY RED-TAPE
I was proud to be appointed to co-chair Governor Abbott’s Small Business Freedom Council. Our mission was to collect feedback from small business owners and state agencies and make recommendations to eliminate unnecessary regulatory burdens on small businesses.  These recommendations resulted in bills such as: 

• SB 14 (Parker/Capriglione) – Establishes the Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office within the governor’s office to identify opportunities to reduce regulatory, administrative, and licensing burdens for small businesses. 
• HB 5195 (Capriglione/Alvarado) – Modernizes state agency systems, including the improvement of online access to services and the reduction of paperwork requirements. 
• HB 11 (Phelan/Middleton) – Expands occupational licensing reciprocity to make it easier for out-of-state workers to transfer their skills to Texas.  

ADDRESSING THE RISING COST OF HEALTH INSURANCE
Small business owners consistently rank “cost of providing health insurance” as one of the top issues affecting their businesses. In response to this, NFIB helped pass the following:  

• HB 138 (Dean/Bettencourt) – creates transparency by establishing a process to estimate how proposed legislation will affect the cost of private health coverage. 

ESTABLISHING A CYBERSECURITY SAFE HARBOR
Small businesses are increasingly the victims of cyberattacks. NFIB spearheaded the effort to pass a Cybersecurity Safe Harbor bill:  

• SB 2610 (Blanco/Capriglione) protects small businesses from certain legal damages in data breach lawsuits, if the business has implemented a cybersecurity program. 

There is still work to be done. 

Unfortunately, some legislation didn’t make it across the finish line. NFIB supported legislation regarding credit card swipe fees and preventing lawsuit abuse that drives up the cost of insurance. We know that these are two crucial challenges facing small businesses. Although these efforts were not successful, we are looking forward to continuing the fight next session.  

• SB 2056 (Hancock/Patterson) would have provided transparency and competition in the credit card marketplace. This would have resulted in healthy competition which would naturally address the rapidly increasing rates of credit card swipe fees.  
• SB 30 (Schwertner/Bonnen) would have addressed the problem of “nuclear verdicts” by preventing plaintiff attorneys from presenting over-inflated medical damages in court. This would prevent minor fender bender accidents from yielding massive judgements in court. Unfortunately, the lawsuit environment in Texas is bankrupting businesses, impeding job creation and threatening the state’s economic wellbeing. 

Continuing the Fight for Small Business 

As the 2025 legislative session wraps up, NFIB Texas celebrates our shared victories: securing tax relief, reducing regulatory hurdles, blocking costly mandates, and elevating the voice of Main Street businesses. When small business owners speak, Texas lawmakers listen. 

A heartfelt thank you to every NFIB member who contacted legislators, testified at committee hearings, or met with elected officials. Your active involvement, backed by the strength of more than 20,000 Texas small business owners, drives our advocacy at the Capitol. 

Jeff Burdett 

Texas State Director, NFIB