AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Senate on Monday concurred in House amendments to a bill creating a state commission to bolster electric-grid resilience and required regular tabletop exercises among regulators and industry to prepare for physical threats to critical infrastructure.

On the Senate floor, Senator Hall — the bill’s floor sponsor — said the measure (Senate Bill 75) and an amendment incorporating language from Senate Bill 2,148 direct the Public Utility Commission and ERCOT to “conduct a tabletop exercise twice a year with electric generation, transmission and distribution services in the [power] region to mitigate and prepare for a threat or actual physical attack on a critical facility.” The amendment also requires clearly identified roles and responsibilities for service providers, generators and law enforcement during those scenarios.

Senator Hall described the package as “a comprehensive strategy to bolster the resilience of our electric grid,” noting it has been under development for more than a decade. Several senators rose to praise the legislation on the floor during the concurrence sequence, including comments recognizing long-term efforts to harden the grid and the bill’s unanimous passage in earlier stages.

The Senate recorded the concurrence vote as 31 ayes and 0 nays. By concurring, the chamber accepted the House’s edits so the measure can proceed toward final enrollment and transmittal.

Discussion versus decision

Senator Hall framed the bill as both a commission-creation measure and an operational requirement for regulators and industry. Floor remarks highlighted the addition of required exercises and clarified that the changes were designed to identify roles and responsibilities among entities including ERCOT and the PUC. The transcript records praise and personal recollections of a long legislative effort, but does not show extended debate about costs, statutory authority, or implementation timelines beyond the floor sponsor’s explanation.

What happens next

The House amendments were concurred in on the floor; the bill will proceed through enrollment and final procedural steps before transmission to the governor. Implementation duties—such as scheduling exercises and defining specific roles—will fall to the Public Utility Commission, ERCOT and the entities referenced in the bill.