How this score is worked out
Seven kinds of act move this number, and they do not count equally. A recorded vote counts 3, and so does authoring a bill or signing an executive action; signing on to somebody else’s bill counts 2. A statement or a questionnaire answer counts 2 as well, and an organisational endorsement counts 1. A vote takes its direction from the bill, whose effect is set out in advance; the rest take it from our reading of what was said, and each one below shows that reading and the reason for it. Acts shown with no number were examined and deliberately left out of the arithmetic, with a reason given.
- 2025-06-01 Texas Compassionate-Use Program HB 46 — voted, counted as +1 at weight 3
- 2025-05-22 Consumable hemp and hemp-derived cannabinoids SB 3 — voted, counted as -2 at weight 3
- 2025-05-21 Consumable hemp and hemp-derived cannabinoids SB 3 — voted, counted as -2 at weight 3
- 2025-05-15 Grant programme for testing suspected THC HB 4879 — voted, counted as +1 at weight 3
- 2025-05-14 Grant programme for testing suspected THC HB 4879 — voted, counted as -1 at weight 3
- 2025-05-14 statement — States an intended Nay on passage to engrossment of CSHB 4879, counted as +1 at weight 2
- 2025-05-13 Texas Compassionate-Use Program HB 46 — voted, counted as +1 at weight 3
- 2025-05-12 Texas Compassionate-Use Program HB 46 — voted, counted as +1 at weight 3
- 2023-05-10 Repeal of the ban on hemp products for smoking HB 4918 — voted, counted as +1 at weight 1.8
- 2023-04-27 Penalties for possession HB 218 — voted, counted as +2 at weight 1.8
- 2023-04-12 Low-THC cannabis for more conditions HB 1805 — voted, counted as +1 at weight 1.8
- 2023-04-11 Low-THC cannabis for more conditions HB 1805 — voted, counted as +1 at weight 1.8
- 2023-04-10 Low-THC cannabis for more conditions HB 1805 — signed on, counted as +1 at weight 1.2
Average on the −2 to +2 scale: 0.293. Full method and the bill table.
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Coauthored2023-04-10
Signed on as a coauthor of HB 1805, relating to the medical use of low-THC cannabis by patients with certain medical conditions.
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Vote2023-04-11
Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 143, passage to engrossment of CSHB 1805, widening the medical conditions qualifying for low-THC cannabis, which carried 121 Yeas to 23 Nays.
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Vote2023-04-12
Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 153, final House passage of HB 1805, widening the medical conditions qualifying for low-THC cannabis, which carried 127 Yeas to 19 Nays.
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Vote2023-04-14
Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 203, third-reading passage of HB 513, increasing the penalty for manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance or marihuana causing death or serious bodily injury. The bill passed, 140 Yeas to 2 Nays. The bill is captioned "Relating to the manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance or marihuana causing death or serious bodily injury; creating a criminal offense; increasing a criminal penalty."
The journal prints this member in the Yea list as "Manuel", the only entry in the roll bearing the surname. The bare surname is resolved by seat: this member sits for House District 22, and Texas Legislature Online's member page for the 88th Legislature names that district's representative as Christian Manuel.
WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: House Bill 513 is on this site's unscored list: Increases the penalty for manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance causing death or serious bodily injury. That is an overdose-death measure, not a question about lawful cannabis access, and scoring it either way would misrepresent the vote. The act is recorded without moving the score.
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Vote2023-04-25
Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 446, third-reading passage of HB 114, on the possession, use, or delivery of marihuana or e-cigarettes on or near public school property or at certain school events. The measure carried, 145 Yeas to 2 Nays. The bill is captioned "Relating to the possession, use, or delivery of marihuana or e-cigarettes on or near public school property or at certain school events." The journal prints this member in the Yea list as "Manuel"; the printed form is matched to this member against the whole membership of the 88th House, who sat for House District 22.
WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: House Bill 114 is on this site’s unscored list: a school-discipline measure, not a cannabis-access measure. Its effect on cannabis is which school-discipline placement a student caught with marihuana receives — it moves marihuana into its own paragraph of Education Code Section 37.006(a)(2), out of the mandatory-expulsion trigger in Section 37.007(a)(3) and into the at-capacity in-school-suspension provision of Section 37.009(a-1) — and it does not change who may possess, buy, grow, prescribe or be prosecuted for cannabis.
The change the bill was carried for was adding e-cigarettes. Both of its record votes were near-unanimous and neither separates the candidates on this site: every one of the 97 who appear in the passage roll is in the Yeas. The act is recorded without moving the score.
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Vote2023-04-27
Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 605, third-reading passage of HB 218, reducing the criminal and licensing consequences of possessing marihuana and certain tetrahydrocannabinols, which carried 87 Yeas to 59 Nays.
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Vote2023-05-02
Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 812, third-reading passage of HB 2818, on hemp production and research permits. The bill passed, 126 Yeas to 17 Nays. The bill is captioned "Relating to the production and regulation of hemp; providing an administrative penalty; requiring a permit to conduct certain research involving hemp; authorizing a fee; creating a criminal offense." The journal prints this member in the Yea list as "Manuel", the only entry in the roll bearing the surname.
The bare surname is resolved by seat: this member sits for House District 22, and Texas Legislature Online's member page for the 88th Legislature names that district's representative as Christian Manuel.
WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: House Bill 2818 is on this site's unscored list: Hemp production and research permits. An agricultural measure whose direction on consumer access is not clear from the bill. The act is recorded without moving the score.
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Vote2023-05-10
Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 1421, third reading of HB 4918, on the processing, manufacture and sale of hemp products for smoking, which failed to pass 69-75 and was reconsidered later the same evening. The bill failed to pass, 69 Yeas to 75 Nays. The bill is captioned "Relating to the processing, manufacture, and sale of hemp products for smoking." The journal prints this member in the Yea list as "Manuel", the only entry in the roll bearing the surname.
The bare surname is resolved by seat: this member sits for House District 22, and Texas Legislature Online's member page for the 88th Legislature names that district's representative as Christian Manuel.
WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: ⚠️This vote was annulled by the House itself, so it is shown and not counted. House Bill 4918 failed on this roll call, and the House then agreed to reconsider it later the same evening, after which the bill passed on Record Vote 1477. Only that final roll call moves the score. A member appearing both here and on Record Vote 1477 has not been recorded twice over: the House put the same question twice, and the second answer is the one that stood.
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Vote2023-05-10
Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 1476, the motion to reconsider the vote by which HB 4918, on hemp products for smoking, had failed to pass earlier that evening. The motion prevailed, 97 Yeas to 31 Nays. The bill is captioned "Relating to the processing, manufacture, and sale of hemp products for smoking." The journal prints this member in the Yea list as "Manuel", the only entry in the roll bearing the surname.
The bare surname is resolved by seat: this member sits for House District 22, and Texas Legislature Online's member page for the 88th Legislature names that district's representative as Christian Manuel.
WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: ⚠️A procedural motion, not a position on the bill, so it is shown and not counted. This roll call is the motion to reconsider the vote by which House Bill 4918 had failed earlier the same evening; the motion prevailed 97 to 31 and the bill then passed on Record Vote 1477. A member may be willing to take a question again without that telling you what they think the answer is, which is why motions of this kind never move the score.
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Vote2023-05-10
Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 1477, third reading of HB 4918, on the processing, manufacture and sale of hemp products for smoking, on the reconsidered vote, which passed 84-59. The bill passed, 84 Yeas to 59 Nays. The bill is captioned "Relating to the processing, manufacture, and sale of hemp products for smoking." The journal prints this member in the Yea list as "Manuel", the only entry in the roll bearing the surname.
The bare surname is resolved by seat: this member sits for House District 22, and Texas Legislature Online's member page for the 88th Legislature names that district's representative as Christian Manuel.
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Vote2023-05-26
Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 2168, the motion to concur in the Senate’s changes to HB 114, on the possession, use, or delivery of marihuana or e-cigarettes on or near public school property or at certain school events, the vote that finally passed it. The measure carried, 136 Yeas to 6 Nays. The bill is captioned "Relating to the possession, use, or delivery of marihuana or e-cigarettes on or near public school property or at certain school events."
The journal prints this member in the Yea list as "Manuel"; the printed form is matched to this member against the whole membership of the 88th House, who sat for House District 22.
WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: House Bill 114 is on this site’s unscored list: a school-discipline measure, not a cannabis-access measure. Its effect on cannabis is which school-discipline placement a student caught with marihuana receives — it moves marihuana into its own paragraph of Education Code Section 37.006(a)(2), out of the mandatory-expulsion trigger in Section 37.007(a)(3) and into the at-capacity in-school-suspension provision of Section 37.009(a-1) — and it does not change who may possess, buy, grow, prescribe or be prosecuted for cannabis.
The change the bill was carried for was adding e-cigarettes. Both of its record votes were near-unanimous and neither separates the candidates on this site: every one of the 97 who appear in the passage roll is in the Yeas. The act is recorded without moving the score.
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Vote2025-05-12
Recorded Yea on Record Vote 2184, passage to engrossment of CSHB 46, the Compassionate Use Program expansion, which carried 118 Yeas to 16 Nays.
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Vote2025-05-13
Recorded Yea on Record Vote 2257, final House passage of HB 46, the Compassionate Use Program expansion, which carried 122 Yeas to 21 Nays.
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Vote2025-05-14
Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 2514, passage to engrossment of CSHB 4879, funding local law enforcement to test substances suspected of containing delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, which carried 121 Yeas to 15 Nays.
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Said2025-05-14
Filed a statement of vote printed in the House Journal on Record Vote 2514, passage to engrossment of CSHB 4879, funding local law enforcement to test substances suspected of containing delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, reading: "When Record No. 2514 was taken, I was shown voting yes. I intended to vote no." The journal prints the signature as "Manuel". A statement of vote of this kind is a correction to how the vote registered in the chamber, so it is a fact about the record rather than a separate position.
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Vote2025-05-14
Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 2495, passage of SB 1833, as amended, to third reading, on the use of a social media platform in furtherance of a controlled-substance delivery offence. The measure carried, 135 Yeas to 2 Nays. The bill is captioned "Relating to the use of a social media platform in furtherance of an offense involving the delivery of a controlled substance; increasing criminal penalties." The journal prints this member in the Yea list as "Manuel"; the printed form is matched to this member against the whole membership of the 89th House, who sat for House District 22.
WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: Senate Bill 1833 is on this site’s unscored list: it raises the penalty for delivering any controlled substance when a social media platform is used to arrange the delivery, and the floor remarks describe it wholly as a response to counterfeit fentanyl pills sold to schoolchildren. The only cannabis-specific change the House made to it, Amendment No. 1, adopted immediately before Record Vote 2495, exempts delivery of four ounces of marihuana or less from the enhancement.
Its direction on cannabis access is therefore arguable, and the vote is recorded without moving the score.
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Vote2025-05-15
Texas House: recorded Nay on Record Vote 2629, final House passage of HB 4879, funding local law enforcement to test substances suspected of containing delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, which carried 128 Yeas to 11 Nays.
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Vote2025-05-15
Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 2594, third-reading passage of SB 1833, on the use of a social media platform in furtherance of a controlled-substance delivery offence. The measure carried, 136 Yeas to 3 Nays. The bill is captioned "Relating to the use of a social media platform in furtherance of an offense involving the delivery of a controlled substance; increasing criminal penalties." The journal prints this member in the Yea list as "Manuel"; the printed form is matched to this member against the whole membership of the 89th House, who sat for House District 22.
WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: Senate Bill 1833 is on this site’s unscored list: it raises the penalty for delivering any controlled substance when a social media platform is used to arrange the delivery, and the floor remarks describe it wholly as a response to counterfeit fentanyl pills sold to schoolchildren. The only cannabis-specific change the House made to it, Amendment No. 1, adopted immediately before Record Vote 2495, exempts delivery of four ounces of marihuana or less from the enhancement.
Its direction on cannabis access is therefore arguable, and the vote is recorded without moving the score.
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Vote2025-05-21
Recorded Yea on Record Vote 3192, passage to third reading of CSSB 3, the intoxicating-hemp-THC ban, which carried 95 Yeas to 44 Nays.
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Vote2025-05-21
Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 3188, adoption of Amendment No. 1 to CSSB 3, the consumable-hemp bill, offered by its House sponsor, deferring the licensing requirements the bill adds until January 1, 2027, which carried 136 Yeas to 0 Nays.
WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: A floor amendment does not take the direction of the bill it amends. Amendment No. 1 to SB 3 rewrote the possession offence downward while the bill itself restricted consumable hemp, so a Yea on the amendment and a Yea on the bill point opposite ways. This record is shown because the member is named in the journal, and it is kept out of the score because its direction is not ours to assert.
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Vote2025-05-21
Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 3189, adoption of Amendment No. 3 to CSSB 3, amending Amendment No. 2, exempting low-THC cannabis regulated under Chapter 487 and hemp research at medical schools, hospitals and institutions of higher education, which carried 102 Yeas to 24 Nays.
WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: A floor amendment does not take the direction of the bill it amends. Amendment No. 1 to SB 3 rewrote the possession offence downward while the bill itself restricted consumable hemp, so a Yea on the amendment and a Yea on the bill point opposite ways. This record is shown because the member is named in the journal, and it is kept out of the score because its direction is not ours to assert.
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Vote2025-05-21
Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 3190, adoption of Amendment No. 4 to CSSB 3, amending Amendment No. 2, rewriting the possession offence and its deferred-disposition and prior-conviction provisions, which carried 126 Yeas to 10 Nays.
WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: A floor amendment does not take the direction of the bill it amends. Amendment No. 1 to SB 3 rewrote the possession offence downward while the bill itself restricted consumable hemp, so a Yea on the amendment and a Yea on the bill point opposite ways. This record is shown because the member is named in the journal, and it is kept out of the score because its direction is not ours to assert.
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Vote2025-05-21
Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 3191, adoption of Amendment No. 2, as amended, to CSSB 3 — a complete substitute for everything below the enacting clause, and from that point the text of the bill, which carried 86 Yeas to 53 Nays.
WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: A floor amendment does not take the direction of the bill it amends. Amendment No. 1 to SB 3 rewrote the possession offence downward while the bill itself restricted consumable hemp, so a Yea on the amendment and a Yea on the bill point opposite ways. This record is shown because the member is named in the journal, and it is kept out of the score because its direction is not ours to assert.
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Vote2025-05-22
Recorded Yea on Record Vote 3304, final House passage of SB 3, the intoxicating-hemp-THC ban, which carried 87 Yeas to 54 Nays.
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Said2025-05-22
Filed a statement of vote printed in the House Journal on Record Vote 3303, adoption of Amendment No. 1 to SB 3 on third reading, the intoxicating-hemp-THC ban, reading: "When Record No. 3303 was taken, I was in the house but away from my desk. I would have voted yes." The journal prints the signature as "Manuel".
WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: The statement concerns a vote on Amendment No. 1 to SB 3 on third reading. This site does not score floor amendments, because an amendment to a cannabis bill routinely runs the opposite way to the bill. Shown, not scored.
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Vote2025-06-01
Recorded Yea on Record Vote 4163, adoption of the conference committee report on HB 46, the Compassionate Use Program expansion, which carried 138 Yeas to 1 Nay.
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Vote2025-06-01
Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 4162, adoption of HR 1523, suspending House Rule 13, Section 9(a)(4) so that the HB 46 conference committee could add text providing that a physician may prescribe more than one package of low-THC cannabis in a 90-day period, which carried 128 Yeas to 12 Nays.
WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: A vote to suspend a House rule so that a conference committee may consider particular text is a vote about procedure, not a recorded position on the text. Shown, not scored.
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Vote2025-06-01
Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 4164, adoption of SCR 56, the first of the two enrolling corrections to HB 46, which instructed the enrolling clerk of the house of representatives to make corrections in the enrolled text of HB 46, the Compassionate-Use Program expansion. The resolution was adopted 137 Yeas to 0 Nays with 1 present not voting, and the House Journal for the 80th Day names this member in the printed Yeas list.
WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but not counted in the score: This site deliberately does not score SCR 56 (89th Legislature), so a record on it moves no number.
Why SCR 56 is not scored
A concurrent resolution, not a bill, and the second of two enrolling-clerk corrections to HB 46 — the sibling of HCR 171, ruled the same way and for the same reason. SCR 56 instructed the enrolling clerk of the house of representatives to make a correction in the enrolled text of HB 46, the Compassionate-Use Program expansion. Adopted in the Senate 2025-06-01, Yeas 31 Nays 0, and in the House the same day by Record Vote 4164, 137 Yeas to 0 Nays with 1 present not voting, House Journal 80th Day page 7902 (journals.house.texas.gov/hjrnl/89r/html/89RDAY80FINAL.HTM).
What it said. The House journal prints only the recital, "Instructing the enrolling clerk of the house of representatives to make corrections in HB 46", so the operative text was read in the Senate Journal for 2025-06-01 (journals.senate.texas.gov/sjrnl/89r/html/89RSJ06-01-F.htm), which prints the resolution in full: "RESOLVED by the 89th Legislature of the State of Texas, That the enrolling clerk of the house of representatives be instructed to make the following corrections to the enrolled version of House Bill No. 46: In SECTION 15 of the bill, in amended Section 169.003(a)(3)(A), Occupations Code (page 10, between lines 8 and 9), immediately following added subparagraph (xi), insert the following appropriately numbered subparagraph and renumber subsequent subparagraphs of that paragraph accordingly: (__) Crohn’s disease or other inflammatory bowel disease;".
⚠️Read alone it looks like adding a qualifying condition to the medical programme, which would be an expansion of access — and that is the trap, running the opposite way to its sibling’s. HCR 171 struck a sentence and looked restrictive; SCR 56 inserts a condition and looks expansive; both are neither, because both conform the enrolled bill to the text the two chambers actually adopted. The test is whether the inserted language was already in what passed, and it was.
The conference committee report on HB 46, laid before the house and printed in the House Journal 80th Day at page 7900 (journals.house.texas.gov/hjrnl/89r/html/89RDAY80FINAL.HTM), sets out Section 15 amending Section 169.003 and lists the qualifying diagnoses in order: "(xi) traumatic brain injury; (xii) Crohn’s disease or other inflammatory bowel disease; (xiii) a terminal illness or a condition for which a patient is receiving hospice or palliative care".
The position matches the resolution exactly — SCR 56 asks for the insertion "immediately following added subparagraph (xi)", and the adopted report prints Crohn’s as (xii), immediately following (xi). That report was adopted by the House on 2025-06-01 by Record Vote 4163, 138 Yeas to 1 Nay, and by the Senate the same day, Yeas 31 Nays 0. The subparagraph had therefore already been voted into the bill by both chambers; the enrolled copy had dropped it, and SCR 56 put it back.
A Yes on an enrolling correction is not a position on which diseases qualify. The enrolled text itself cannot be checked from here: capitol.texas.gov disallows /TLODOCS/ to us. Downstream, measured: 121 verified acts cite this resolution, across 121 distinct candidates (49 Democrats, 72 Republicans), and every one of them already holds a published number. classify() returns "other" for all 121, so no published number moves whichever way this is ruled — the ruling is what lets the acts be printed with a written reason instead of sitting unjudged.
HB 46 itself is scored, at +1, and that is where a member’s position on the Compassionate-Use expansion is read.
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Vote2025-06-02
Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 4167, adoption of HCR 171, the second enrolling correction to HB 46, which instructed the enrolling clerk of the house to strike from the enrolled bill a sentence allowing low-THC cannabis prescribed for pulmonary inhalation to exceed one percent tetrahydrocannabinols by weight in each dosage unit. The resolution was adopted 138 Yeas to 0 Nays with 1 present not voting, and the House Journal for the 81st Day names this member in the printed Yeas list.
WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but not counted in the score: This site deliberately does not score HCR 171 (89th Legislature), so a record on it moves no number.
Why HCR 171 is not scored
A concurrent resolution, not a bill: it instructed the enrolling clerk to strike from the enrolled HB 46, in Section 16, added Section 169.006(b), Occupations Code (page 11, lines 16-20), the sentence “Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, low-THC cannabis prescribed under Subsection (a) for pulmonary inhalation may exceed one percent by weight of tetrahydrocannabinols in each dosage unit of the substance to be aerosolized or vaporized.”
Adopted 2025-06-02 by Record Vote 4167, 138 Yeas to 0 Nays with 1 present not voting, House Journal 81st Day pages 7921-7922.
⚠️Read alone it looks like stripping a potency allowance out of the medical programme, and the journals say otherwise. The sentence entered the bill through King's floor Amendment No. 1 on second reading, House Journal 62nd Day, 2025-05-12 (journals.house.texas.gov/hjrnl/89r/html/89RDAY62FINAL.HTM), item (10); item (9) of the same amendment fixed the definition of low-THC cannabis at not more than one percent by weight in each dosage unit, which is the benchmark the sentence excepts itself from.
The conference committee report laid before the house on 2025-06-01 replaced that cap with not more than 10 milligrams in each dosage unit, and its own text of Section 169.006(b) consists only of the second sentence: the notwithstanding clause does not appear anywhere in the conference report as printed, House Journal 80th Day page 7900. So the struck sentence was not in the text either chamber finally adopted and it pointed at a cap the same report had deleted.
HCR 171 conformed the enrolled bill to the bill that passed, which is what its own recital says and what 138 to 0 looks like; HB 46 took a second enrolling correction the day before, SCR 56 at Record Vote 4164. A Yes on an enrolling correction is not a position on potency. The enrolled text itself cannot be checked from here: capitol.texas.gov disallows /TLODOCS/ to us.