Overview

• Representatives voted 86–43 to advance SB 8 after adopting Rep. Steve Toth’s amendment that hikes institutional penalties to $25,000 for a first violation and $125,000 for subsequent violations, with each day counting as a separate offense.
• The bill requires restroom and locker-room use in government buildings and public schools and universities based on sex assigned at birth, bars those assigned male at birth from women’s domestic violence shelters with a narrow under‑17 exception, and disallows prison housing exceptions for transgender inmates.
• Enforcement targets institutions rather than individuals and allows investigations by the Texas attorney general as well as private complaints and lawsuits against governments alleged to be in violation.
• Facilities may offer gender‑neutral single‑stall restrooms, and the proposal lists exceptions for young children accompanied by caretakers along with custodians, maintenance workers, law enforcement and medical personnel.
• The House must take one more procedural vote before the bill returns to the Senate and potentially goes to Gov. Greg Abbott, as opponents prepare legal challenges and lawmakers work under a Sept. 13 special‑session deadline.