Texas Senate Hearing Sept 14, 2026

Verify before you travel

Everything below is taken from the official notice posted by the Texas Legislature, linked in full further down. Hearings are postponed, moved and re-noticed. Check the notice again the day before you travel, and confirm anything you are relying on with the Senate Committee Coordinator at 512/463-0070. This page is not the official notice and does not replace it.

Last updated: August 19, 2026. Checked against the official notice that day: no revision, no cancellation, and the date, time and room are unchanged. The committee's September 14 hearing was still listed as scheduled by both Texas Legislature Online and the Senate's own events page.

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Hearing details

Committee: Senate Committee on State Affairs
Date and time: 9:00 AM, Monday, September 14, 2026
Place: E1.012 (Hearing Room), Texas State Capitol Extension, 1100 Congress Avenue, Austin
Chair: Senator Bryan Hughes
Testimony: Public and invited testimony. Limited to 2 minutes per witness.
Official notice: Notice of Public Hearing (HTML) · PDF
Watching from home: Senate committee hearings are streamed and archived. Watch on the day at Senate live video, or afterwards in the Senate audio and video archive. You do not have to travel to Austin to follow what is said about family courts.

What the committee is examining

The notice lists three interim charges. Family courts are the second of the three. Quoted from the official notice:

1. Protecting Minors Online

Study online gaming platforms that target minor children. Determine which gaming platforms advertise to minors, whether the advertisements are appropriate, and whether the platforms have sufficient age verification and youth protections. Make recommendations to prevent minors from accessing violent and sexual content in games. Additionally, make recommendations to prohibit communications between minors and adult strangers on gaming platforms.

2. Protecting Texas Families — the family court charge

Study the unnecessary burden placed on Texas children and families who suffer from inefficient or inconsistent divorce and child custody proceedings. Identify inefficiencies in these proceedings that result in unpredictable timelines, unnecessary delays, repetitive child evaluations, or other needless complications. Make recommendations to ensure Texas families have access to fair and consistent procedures in family courts and truly prioritize the best interests of children.

This is the charge most relevant to service of process and default judgments. The words the committee is working from are inefficient, inconsistent, unpredictable timelines, unnecessary delays and needless complications. Testimony that connects a specific procedural defect to one of those words is speaking the committee's own language.

3. Monitoring

Monitor the implementation of legislation addressed by the Senate Committee on State Affairs passed by the 89th Legislature, as well as relevant agencies and programs under the committee's jurisdiction.

The notice names Senate Bill 3070 (89th Legislature), on the abolishment of the Texas Lottery Commission. Not related to family courts.

A second State Affairs hearing the next day

The committee has noticed two consecutive days. September 15 is a separate hearing, 9:00 AM in the same room, on four unrelated interim charges: Closing Gambling Loopholes; Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Texans; Protecting the Integrity of the Judiciary; and Ensuring Consumer Protection in Alcohol Sales.

Family courts are heard on Monday September 14, not Tuesday September 15.

This matters for planning. The September 15 notice carries its own four charges and says nothing about continuing the previous day's business, so do not count on the 14th spilling over into the 15th if the committee runs short of time. If you are coming for the family court charge, come on the 14th, and come early.

One charge on the second day may interest the same readers even though it is not about service of process: Protecting the Integrity of the Judiciary directs the committee to study advocacy groups improperly influencing judges and entities providing biased judicial training. Testimony on that subject belongs on the 15th, not the 14th. Notice of Public Hearing, September 15 (HTML) · PDF

How to testify in person

Public testimony is limited to 2 minutes per witness. The hearing begins at 9:00 AM on Monday, September 14, 2026, in Room E1.012.

Allow a full day. Family courts are the second of three charges. A committee may take them in any order, and testimony on your item may not begin for hours. If you are taking time off work, take the day.
Bring a written copy of your statement. Two minutes is roughly 250–300 spoken words. Written testimony is how the rest of what you have to say reaches the committee.
Bring 20 copies if you intend to leave written testimony — see the section below.
Arrive early. The Capitol has security screening, and witness registration for Senate committees is handled at the hearing room. The notice does not describe the registration procedure, so confirm it with the coordinator rather than relying on second-hand accounts.
If you need assistance such as a sign language interpreter or an assistive listening device, the notice asks that you contact the Senate Committee Coordinator at 512/463-0070 at least 72 hours before the meeting.

How to submit written testimony

The notice asks for 20 copies provided to the committee clerk, with your name on each copy.

Public testimony will be limited to 2 minutes per witness. If submitting written testimony, please provide 20 copies to the committee clerk with your name on each copy.

Two things the notice does not say, which matter if you are planning around them:

It gives no deadline. Written testimony is described as something provided to the clerk, which implies at the hearing itself.
It gives no email address or mailing address. If you cannot attend in person and want your written testimony before the committee anyway, ask the Senate Committee Coordinator at 512/463-0070 how to submit it. Do not assume email is accepted.

If you cannot travel, this is still worth doing. Written testimony carries the substance of an argument in a way two spoken minutes cannot.

What makes testimony effective

Be specific. A named rule, a named form, a named step in a process. Committees hear a great deal of general frustration and very little of what precisely went wrong.
Cite the rule or statute if you can. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 239a, for example, requires a certificate of last known address and imposes no duty to verify it. That is a sentence a committee can act on.
Name one concrete fix. One. A committee remembers a single clear ask far better than a list.
Stay inside the time. Being stopped mid-sentence at two minutes costs you the ask, which is usually last. Put the ask first.
Connect it to the charge. The committee is studying inefficiency, inconsistency and unnecessary delay. Frame the problem in those terms.

Testimony is recorded and public. Texas Senate hearings are broadcast and archived. Your name, your statement and anything you hand the clerk become a permanent public record.

If you have a pending case, read this first

Testimony is permanently recorded and publicly available. An opposing party, their counsel, or a judge can find it later. Anything you say about the facts of a live matter is said on the record, outside your case, without the protections a courtroom gives you.

Consider testifying about the procedure rather than your own facts. The text of a rule is not contestable. Allegations in a pending case are, until a court rules on them. You can describe what a rule permits, and what it fails to require, without narrating a matter that is still being litigated.

If you are unsure, speak to your attorney before you testify. This page is legal information, not legal advice, and nobody here knows the posture of your case.

Common questions about this hearing

How long can I speak when testifying at this hearing?

Two minutes. The notice states that public testimony will be limited to 2 minutes per witness. Prepare a written copy so the committee has your full statement even if you are stopped at time.

How do I submit written testimony to the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee?

The notice asks for 20 copies provided to the committee clerk, with your name on each copy. It does not give a submission deadline or an email address, so confirm both with the Senate Committee Coordinator at 512/463-0070 before relying on any other method.

What is the committee examining about family courts?

The interim charge is Protecting Texas Families. It directs the committee to study the unnecessary burden placed on Texas children and families who suffer from inefficient or inconsistent divorce and child custody proceedings, and to identify inefficiencies that result in unpredictable timelines, unnecessary delays, repetitive child evaluations, or other needless complications.

Will the family court charge be heard first?

Not necessarily. Protecting Texas Families is the second of three charges on the notice, after Protecting Minors Online and before a monitoring charge on Senate Bill 3070. A committee may take charges in any order and testimony on your item may not begin for some hours. Plan for a full day.

Is my testimony public?

Yes. Texas Senate committee hearings are broadcast and archived. Your name, your statement and any documents you submit become a permanent public record that anyone can find later, including an opposing party.

Should I testify if I have a pending custody case?

Consider testifying about the procedural problem rather than the facts of your own matter. A rule's text is not contestable; allegations in a pending case are. Testimony is permanently public and an opposing party can read it. If you are unsure how it may affect your case, speak to your attorney first.

What makes testimony to a legislative committee effective?

Be specific, cite the rule or statute if you can, name one concrete fix, and stay inside the time limit. A committee remembers one clear ask better than a full account of a case.

Still deciding?

If you have read this far, tell us where you land. Updates go out if the hearing moves, and before the written-testimony deadline.