Friday was the final day to file bills for consideration in the 2017 session of the Texas Legislsature, and some 8,000 bills made it through the window before it closed, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
That is fewer than the 11,000 filed in the 2015 session, but even with the lower number, fewer than one in ten will get anywhere close to becoming law, and many will die in committee without a serious hearing.
Alan Saxe, a political analyst at UT Arlington, says the last minute bills are some of the oddest, and this year was no exception.
He cites a proposal to excuse all breast feeding women from jury duty, a bill to reverse two public votes designed to dedicate tax money to TxDOT for non tolled highway construction, and a bill "creating a civil penalty for unregulated masturbatory emissions.'"
There is also a group of hunters who want to hunt feral hogs and coyotes from hot air balloons," Saxe said.S
State Rep. Jessica Farrar (D-Houston) who caused a lot of conversation with her bill outlawing male masturbation, says it would also require all men who request a 'Viagra prescription, a colonoscopy, or a vascetomy' to receive 'counseling including a booklet called 'A Man's Right to Know,' which will spell out the intricacies of the procedure.
Any man who is fined $100 for masturbating will also be entered in a 'Hospital Masturbatory Assistance Registry' and will receive 'fully abstinent encouragement counseling' and the fine will be punishment for an 'act against an unborn child.'
The measure is clearly an attempt to counter the increasingly strict rules being proposed by lawmakers concerning abortion.
Other last minute bills introduced in the Legislature include a bill to legalize Fantasy Sports, and to order a study on what Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller calls the 'hog apocalypse,' the effort to use deadly pesticides agaisnt troublesome feral hogs.
Now that the bill filing season is over, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says today will be 'Blue Day' at the Capitol.
"Protecting law enforcement, keeping people safe, keeping people in law enforcement safe, is the duty of all of us, and something I know all Texans desire," Patrick said.
There are several bills to boost police in the wake of last year's deadly year for law enforcement officers. The measures range from additional money to buy bulletproof vests for officers, to a bill to mandate that any assaults on police officers be designated as 'hate crimes.'
The session of the Legislature ends on Memorial Day.