2025 · Regular session · House bill
HB223
HB223 removes a municipal purchasing exemption for lobbying, government-relations and similar services intended to directly or indirectly influence state or federal lawmakers on a municipality's behalf.
Official caption: Relating to competitive requirements for a procurement by a municipality for lobbying, government relations, or similar services.
Official report lists House author(s): Capriglione, Tepper, Spiller, Alders. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.
Bill highlights
Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.
- HB223 removes a municipal purchasing exemption for lobbying, government-relations and similar services intended to directly or indirectly influence state or federal lawmakers on a municipality's behalf.
- This is a purchasing-rule change, not an outright ban on a city hiring a lobbyist or spending public money on government relations.
- The affected exemption is narrowed only for the specified lobbying-related services.
What does it do?
HB223 removes a municipal purchasing exemption for lobbying, government-relations and similar services intended to directly or indirectly influence state or federal lawmakers on a municipality’s behalf. Cities can no longer rely on Chapter 252’s personal, professional or planning-services exemption for those services. The change applies to procurement contracts made on or after September 1, 2025. Final act
This is a purchasing-rule change, not an outright ban on a city hiring a lobbyist or spending public money on government relations. The rest of Chapter 252 still matters, including its thresholds, purchasing methods and other exemptions. Section 252.021’s general threshold, as effective September 1, 2025, is an expenditure of more than $100,000; that threshold was changed by a separate law, SB1173, not by HB223. The law should not be summarized as requiring every lobbying purchase, regardless of amount or another applicable exception, to use the same bidding process. Competitive requirements · Exemptions
The affected exemption is narrowed only for the specified lobbying-related services. HB223 does not delete the professional-services exemption for all other work, repeal all municipal procurement exceptions, or extend this particular amendment to every county, school district or other public body. Final act, Section 1
What changed along the way?
The filed bill already proposed removing lobbying and government-relations services intended to influence state or federal lawmakers from the exemption. The House committee substitute recast the sentence and limited the bill’s amended text to Section 252.022(a), instead of reproducing the entire section. The unamended subsections omitted from that reprint were not repealed. It also shortened the application clause while retaining prospective application to new contracts. Filed text · House substitute
The House-passed and Senate committee texts used “influence.” The Senate adopted Senator Middleton’s amendment May 26 to insert “directly or indirectly,” and the final law includes those words. That is the only separate amendment listed in the official index. House-passed text · Senate report · Middleton amendment · Amendment index
The House passed HB223 May 7 by 92–56, with one present but not voting. The Senate passed it May 28 by 19–12. The House agreed to the Senate change May 30 by 103–28, with two present but not voting. The governor signed it June 20. Final vote certificates · Official history
For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.
Official bill versions
Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.
Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?
Competing providers may gain an opportunity to seek municipal lobbying contracts that previously could rely on the professional-services exemption. Residents may benefit from more competition and scrutiny where Chapter 252’s competitive procedures apply. The act does not establish that prices will fall or that the selected provider will be more effective. Final act
Cities and vendors may spend more time on procurement procedures, and incumbent providers may face competition for new contracts. The Legislative Budget Board anticipated no state fiscal implication and no significant local-government fiscal implication. It did not quantify bidding costs, savings or changes in lobbying spending. Final fiscal note
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
