Texas’s underground facility safety bills died in 2025 — the work moved to an interim subcommittee

_Three bills touching Texas's dig law died in committee in 2025. The story didn't end there: the House stood up an interim Subcommittee on Underground Facility Safety, and it has already taken testimony._

What happened in the 89th Legislature

Three bills in the 2025 regular session touched Chapter 251 of the Utilities Code — the Underground Facility Damage Prevention and Safety Act. None became law: ¹Jump to source 1⁴Jump to source 4⁵Jump to source 5

• HB 5475 (Guillen) would have directed the Railroad Commission of Texas, with the Texas Underground Facility Notification Corporation's board, to study the effectiveness of the state's damage prevention system — its filed text called for identifying the leading causes of underground utility damage, examining whether sufficient locating and marking resources exist, surveying best practices nationally, and reporting to state leadership by December 1, 2027. It was referred to the House Committee on Energy Resources on April 7, 2025 and never received a hearing, dying in committee when the session adjourned June 2, 2025. ¹Jump to source 1²Jump to source 2³Jump to source 3
• HB 1335 (Gerdes) was the substantive one — a rewrite of Chapter 251 expanding the definition of "underground facility" and revising operator notification, marking and damage-report processes. It got a committee hearing on March 17, 2025, was left pending, and died there. ⁴Jump to source 4
• SB 501 (Kolkhorst), the Senate's underground facility safety bill, died in the Senate Committee on Business & Commerce without a recorded hearing. ⁵Jump to source 5

The practical takeaway for anyone digging in Texas: nothing changed. No study mandate is in force — the December 2027 report deadline in HB 5475's text was never enacted — and Chapter 251 stands as it did. The two-business-day notice, the marking rules and the rest of the current framework continue unchanged. ¹Jump to source 1²Jump to source 2

Why this still matters: the interim subcommittee

Rather than letting the topic drop, the House Committee on Energy Resources created a Subcommittee on Underground Facility Safety, chaired by Representative Gerdes — the author of the substantive rewrite that died — with members named May 12, 2025. The subcommittee held an organizational public hearing on October 22, 2025, taking invited testimony from the Railroad Commission of Texas, the One Call Board of Texas, and panels covering Texas 811, facility classes, line locating and mapping, the Texas excavation process, and facility operability. ⁶Jump to source 6

An interim subcommittee chaired by the rewrite's author, hearing testimony on locating and mapping specifically, is how Texas legislation typically gets built between sessions. The reasonable expectation — an expectation, not a prediction — is that some version of this work returns in the 90th Legislature, which convenes in January 2027, either as a re-filed study bill or as another run at a Chapter 251 rewrite.

What to watch, and when

• The subcommittee's interim work through 2026 — its hearings and any interim report are the earliest signal of what a 2027 bill would contain. ⁶Jump to source 6
• Bill filing for the 90th Legislature opens in late 2026; the session runs January to June 2027.
• What a Chapter 251 rewrite could touch that matters day-to-day: the definition of covered facilities, notification and marking timelines, and damage-reporting duties — the exact mechanics summarized in our 811 guide, which we will update if the law moves.

We'll track this in the feed as it develops. Until something passes, the rules you dig under today are the rules.

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