2025 · Regular session · Senate bill
SB995
SB995 transfers approval of two kinds of road-crossing surety bonds to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT).
Official caption: Relating to the approval of a surety bond for a contract authorizing an oversize or overweight vehicle to cross a road or highway.
Official report lists Senate author(s): Nichols. 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.
- SB995 transfers approval of two kinds of road-crossing surety bonds to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT).
- The covered provisions concern certain oversized or overweight vehicles crossing the width of a road or highway between private properties, not general permission to drive overweight vehicles along any highway.
- The operator must still enter the required maintenance-and-repair agreement and obtain a bond from a corporate surety authorized in Texas, conditioned on fulfilling the agreement.
What does it do?
SB995 transfers approval of two kinds of road-crossing surety bonds to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). Previously, both the comptroller and attorney general approved them. A surety bond provides financial backing for the operator’s contractual road-maintenance and repair obligations; the bill changes the approver, not the requirement to obtain a bond. Final law; Pre-act section 623.051; Pre-act section 623.052.
The covered provisions concern certain oversized or overweight vehicles crossing the width of a road or highway between private properties, not general permission to drive overweight vehicles along any highway. Section 623.051 excludes controlled-access highways from its crossing authority. Section 623.052 separately covers specified commodity-carrying overweight vehicles, including its existing 110,000-pound limit for one category and its distinct unlicensed-vehicle category. Those eligibility rules are not changed. Pre-act section 623.051; Pre-act section 623.052; Final law.
The operator must still enter the required maintenance-and-repair agreement and obtain a bond from a corporate surety authorized in Texas, conditioned on fulfilling the agreement. The governor signed SB995 June 20, 2025, and it took effect immediately. The recorded passage votes met the immediate-effect threshold; September 1 was only a fallback. The new law applies to bond approvals on or after the effective date. History; Final law.
What changed along the way?
All five text versions contain the same operative changes, and no floor amendments are indexed. The two approval substitutions are accompanied by the bond-approval application date and effective-date clause; the bill does not raise vehicle weight limits or eliminate liability for road damage. Text versions; Amendment index; Final law.
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?
Operators use TxDOT rather than two other state offices for these bond approvals. TxDOT gains that approval responsibility, while the financial backing for maintenance and repairs remains. Fewer approving offices may simplify administration, but the act sets no approval deadline and promises no premium reduction or quantified savings. Final law.
The March 11 fiscal note anticipates no significant state fiscal impact, assumes implementation costs can be absorbed with existing resources, and anticipates no local-government fiscal implication. It does not estimate operators’ bond premiums or time savings. Sole indexed 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.
