The Texas House Committee on Insurance will gavel in at 9 a.m. Oct. 5 in Capitol Extension room E2.026 to take invited testimony only on rising property and casualty insurance costs, consumer protections and the rollout of three insurance laws the panel wrote last session, according to the official hearing notice. Texans who will not testify can still weigh in: the committee is accepting electronic public comment on every item on the notice through its online portal until the hearing adjourns.
Rep. Jay Dean, R-Longview, chairs the nine-member committee, which splits six Republicans to three Democrats, with Rep. Hubert Vo, D-Houston, serving as vice chair, according to Texas Policy Research. The panel oversees the Texas Department of Insurance and has jurisdiction over every company that writes insurance policies in the state. This is the panel’s latest interim hearing on an issue that has dominated its agenda since the 89th Legislature adjourned: the cost and availability of homeowners coverage.
The Monitoring charge asks members to check on three bills the committee passed last session. House Bill 138, authored by Dean himself, created the Health Impact, Cost, and Coverage Analysis Program and took effect in June 2025. House Bill 3689 restructured how the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association funds its excess losses and operating expenses, authorizing new assessments and a surcharge; most of that law took effect Sept. 1, 2025, with a handful of provisions delayed to 2027. Senate Bill 458, sponsored in the House by Dean, created a new appraisal process for disputed claims under auto and residential property policies and took effect Sept. 1, 2025; the Texas Department of Insurance has since proposed new rules implementing that process, with a compliance deadline of Sept. 1, 2026, for insurers to amend their policy forms.
The Cost Drivers Impacting Property and Casualty Insurance Premiums charge is the broadest and most consequential: lawmakers want the committee to study why premiums keep climbing and what that means for home affordability, with particular attention to coastal and catastrophe-exposed regions. The scale of the problem is well documented. The median Texas homeowner paid 60% more for coverage in 2024 than in 2019, roughly double the 30% national increase, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas analysis. Texas homeowners without a mortgage devoted 14.9% of their housing costs to insurance in 2024, the Dallas Fed found, a burden the bank linked to a 250% jump in the state’s billion-dollar weather disasters since 2017. The same analysis found premium growth cooling, from 18.7% in 2024 to 4.3% in 2025 — a trend the committee may test against member and public testimony.
The Consumer Protection charge directs the committee to review whether existing law and enforcement adequately ensure transparency, consumer choice and coverage adequacy in property and casualty lines, and to recommend fixes where it finds gaps.
The Declination, Cancellation, or Nonrenewal charge tracks the rollout of House Bill 2067, authored by committee member Rep. Dennis Paul, R-Houston, which set new rules for when and how insurers can decline, cancel or refuse to renew a policy. The law took effect Jan. 1 and requires insurers to report their reasons for coverage decisions to the state by ZIP code; the Texas Department of Insurance has since proposed rules extending that reason-code reporting to commercial and farm and ranch policies starting Oct. 1, 2026, and members are expected to hear how enforcement has gone in the law’s first nine months.
Because this is an interim hearing, the committee will take no vote and no legislation is before it. Its findings will inform an interim report and any bills filed when the 90th Legislature convenes in January 2027.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 9:00 AM CT, Monday, October 5, 2026
- Where
- Room E2.026, Capitol Extension, Austin
- Chair
- Rep. Jay Dean, R–Longview (HD-7)
- Vice Chair
- Rep. Hubert Vo, D–Houston (HD-149)
- Format
- Invited testimony only; electronic public comment accepted online for every item on the notice until the hearing is adjourned; interim charges only — no vote on legislation
- Live video
- house.texas.gov/video-audio
- Submit comments online
- comments.house.texas.gov (c320) — open until the hearing is adjourned
- Full agenda
- Official hearing notice (capitol.texas.gov)
Committee members
- Rep. Jay Dean, R–Longview (HD-7) — Chair
- Rep. Hubert Vo, D–Houston (HD-149) — Vice Chair
- Rep. Jessica González, D–Dallas (HD-104)
- Rep. Vikki Goodwin, D–Austin (HD-47)
- Rep. Andy Hopper, R–Decatur (HD-64)
- Rep. Matt Morgan, R–Richmond (HD-26)
- Rep. Dennis Paul, R–Houston (HD-129)
- Rep. David Spiller, R–Jacksboro (HD-68)
- Rep. Trey Wharton, R–Huntsville (HD-12)